hey mary ... conifers dont hold there needles forever ... most losing them after a few years... yours has to be different that when you bought them.. a few years ago ... or they wouldnt have any needles ... i am wondering if you didnt get some mislabeled dwarf or mini picea pungens thrown in with the lot.. and only a picture or two.. would answer that ken

'Sester Dwarf' With one-fourth the growth rate of its big brother this would probably fit your confines. At the very manimun 6 inches a year. This one about 12 years old. Main leader grew 6 inches while side branch growth limited to 4 inches this year. 5 ft tall. Growth rate variances will depend upon soil, micro climate, sun and adequate water. Only maximum growth will occur if all the above needs fall within the plants average needs. Dave

Isabella: Just to let you know that there is more than one opinion on this matter, Ken and I have discussed this topic more than once before and have agreed to disagree. To some extent, he is right, however. If a large tree is not dug and planted properly, it will take longer to get over the transplant shock/root loss, and resume normal growth. I can also add, that it is my opinion based on many, many years of observations (I dug and transplanted my first tree when I was about 6 years old and I am now 70), that if a tree suffers extreme--and I mean extreme stress during transplant, it may never be as vigorous as a tree that has had good health throughout its life. So, granting those points to Ken, let me explain why I disagree--in many if not most situations. Because we are talking about a spruce tree here--not all trees react to transplanting the same and/or recover in the same amount of time--let me tell you about some Norway spruce I planted 7 years ago. Two of them I dug up myself--they were about 7 or 8 feet tall. Really too large for me to handle properly, so after my struggles, there was excessive root loss. At the same time I planted about 8 Norway spruce about 2 1/2 feet tall. So the larger trees were about 5 feet taller than the smaller ones. And the larger ones were planted on top of a small ridge with thin soil. The others were planted in a much more favorable location. Now not all trees are the same and this may be too small a sample to draw any good scientific conclusions, but the two larger trees I planted, in spite of the very "ragged" digging and planting job I did, are now still at least 5 feet taller. Really, I think they are more like 8 feet taller. The others are growing well also, but not catching up. How about an extreme example? Some of you out there know about Longwood Gardens, not far from Philadelphia. At either side of the entrance to the largest of the conservatories are two Norway spruce trees. I believe these were close to 60 feet tall when planted there--If anyone wants to go see these trees and report, I will rest my case. So, if you want a larger tree NOW, and believe the nursery knows what it is doing, and your soil is deep enough to accommodate a large root ball, I think you can go with the larger tree. Also, and this is a very important point for me, if you are getting blue spruce that are of seedling origin, the trees will vary not only in their color, but also in their branching habit. Some blue spruce have some droop to their foliage that I think is attractive. There may be some other characteristics in individual trees you like. If the tree is large enough these characteristics will have had time to develop so you can judge what you are getting. You can look at a 4 foot blue spruce and have little or no idea what its growth characteristics will be like when the tree is 12 to 15 feet tall. --Spruce

Alright, don't laugh.... it doesn't look like much right now: another view: and yes my wonderful wiring is done using twist ties. I first had to roughly place each juniper branch close to the deadwood, let the plant settle and see if it will live. Later on I can get the live branches trimmed down and sitting more snug and spiraled, perhaps Dremmel out a groove in the deadwood if I see it necessary. I'll dig up some more photos, you can't really see it here but the base of that Colorado Blue Spruce Trunk is a good 5" thick. Basically I figure in several years this might become much more interesting and I'll want to lift the whole thing up, maybe treat the deadwood to stop it from decomposing and secure it with some kind of fixture. So yeah, that's my "Phoenix Graft" for now.