Picea sitchensis Tenas - Sitka spruce

Picea sitchensis 'Tenas' is a dwarf Sitka Spruce, very compact, with a globose habit. It offers a beautiful colour, with its bright blue-green needles. It first forms a small rounded ball, then with age, slowly acquires a more conical silhouette. The density of the needles and the perfectly round shape give it an unusual appearance. It integrates well into small gardens and enlivens rockeries and pots on the terrace. It is a very hardy, undemanding small conifer which does not require pruning. It thrives in well-drained, but moist, ordinary soil, and a sunny exposure.

Picea sitchensis, also known as Sitka Spruce, is a plant from the pinaceae family. Native to the west coast of the United States, it owes its name to the locality of Sitka, located in Alaska. It is a very hardy species, accustomed to cold and humid climates in summer. In its natural environment, which is often very harsh, this fast-growing tree can exceed 40 m in height, and shows a pyramidal habit with age, and whorled branches. This spruce is one of the few that can tolerate transplantation at a young age. It is very tolerant of soil pH.

The 'Tenas' variety is distinguished by its truly spherical shape and the density of its needles, a beautiful glaucous blue, tinged with bright green. Its growth is very slow, around 7 to 8 cm per year. A 10-year-old specimen does not exceed 80 cm in all directions. Ultimately, it reaches a maximum height of 1.80 m to 2.20 m. It produces thin and stiff branches, very close together, directed upwards. They are covered with fine, flat and stiff needles, arranged radially around the branches. They are bluish-grey-silver in spring, then become greenish-blue over the seasons.

The dwarf Sitka Spruce 'Tenas', rather easy to grow, adapts to many climates, as long as the soil is well-drained and moist. It has a structured silhouette. Its reduced development allows it to be planted in gardens of all sizes, in a small bed or rockery scene. Combine it with other dwarf conifers with different coloured foliage, dark green, yellow-green, developing other silhouettes, with a prostrate, conical, columnar habit. Evergreen conifers are very aesthetic and have interesting architectural qualities for all gardens, especially contemporary gardens, which are more radical in their choice of silhouette and foliage. Play with volumes and colours by associating them with flowering shrubs, ground cover plants.