Maybe the original soil ball is dry despite watering.

think picea glauca rainbows end ...

the whole point is the mid-summer flush in brilliant yellow ...

if REnd reflushes... then conica ... aka DAS will reflush ... time to study the buds at the tips of the branches.. and not be so fixated on the needles leading to the end ....

it isnt time to give up just yet ...

do dig down and see what the rootball looks like ... as bboy suggests ....

and maybe a couple poles and a piece of burlap for the rest of the season might help ...

good luck

ken

Have 2 Alberta Spruce in semi-shady spot. These bushes LOVE water. Whenever I water them they flush out new bright green happy growth. Even in winter! Before we bought this house they were in small containers and hardly ever got watered. I did not even know what they were. They were almost always brown. So there's hope.

I water them gently via hose shower nozzle so as not to weigh down their fluffiness. They also get rain and sprinkler water. If I go 2 days without watering them they quickly form buds which needle out the next day when I water them. These fluff balls are exuberant! Out of my 300+ trees the baby Alberta Spruces push more growth than anything else.

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Being a juvenile foliage variant it has seedling leaves that are more delicate than those of the normal adult plant.

...part of it overcomes the fixed juvenility* and a normal growth looking like the other spruce in the above picture pops out of it and grows on to become a much larger tree unless pruned out.

*This may not be a fixed juvenile in the strict sense, like for example a cypress family conifer cultivar that produces the awl-like needles of the seedling instead of the scale-like ones of the normal adult - but it has similar tendencies to be more delicate

BBoy, I've seen what you're talking about! A fairly large Dwarf Alberta Spruce with a big spruce tree growing out its top. I think it's great! Hope my 2 do that eventually. It's like the Spruce is then wearing a lovely fluffy grass skirt. The variety is intriguing.

Chester Grant, keep gently watering yours well and update us.

Its been well watered daily but the singed area is still singed. Despite protecting it from the sun when necessary.....

I am going to have to move it to a spot where I can plant it so the burned part is the backside and wont be an eyesore.

You may also want to check for spider mites as they explode during heat waves and DAS are their favorite conifer. If they are there, blast the branches with as strong of a stream of water as the branches will take without breaking.

tj

The tree still has brown needles on the side that takes the southern sun, but most of the the singed branches have little green candles at the tip. So maybe this thing can come back? There are a few branches which are singed brown with no sign of life at the tip......so I guess the tree will have a patchy look at best?

I have brushed out the burned needles - now the tree has long shoots with no needles and little green candles at the tip......will it make a comeback?

Perhaps it is also getting a lot of heat reflection from your house. I have mine planted on a south east side beside a slate covered porch and wall. I have to keep an eye on it for getting too hot. I do the hose spray thing to keep it more humid there because I understand the spider mites just like that intense drying heat. All of my alberta spruce out in the open never have this problem.

My Dwarf Alberta Spruce in the open doesn't have that problem either. Up close to a building or another plant and I get thinning. Even in the open here near Seattle, the north facing side is thinner than the south facing side.

Chester, your problem may be that the Spruce is now facing 180 degrees from what it was growing in the nursery. Some plants should be tagged on the sunny side so when they are moved the sunny side is facing south when planted.

Planting a Dwarf Alberta Spruce on the north side of a house with western exposure doesn't seem like the ideal spot to me.

Took a picture so you can see both of mine. They were really straggly brown charlie brown bushes when planted Dec05. The key has been gentle watering, nozzle on 'shower' low pressure, just caressing the fine babyish needles but letting the ground under the whole 'tree' get wet.

Planted on each side of a wide flagstone path. Haven't had a problem with spider mites yet. Do have to be careful not to let anything weigh down any part of 'tree' because it will then show big gap. Our many garter snakes like to sun themselves on these 'trees.'

Here's a picture of a reversion. Out of ten Dwarf Alberta Spruces I have had 3 revert. All but this one have been cut out. This whole tree is coming down as soon as I walk by it with a chainsaw in my hand. It is no longer in an appropriate position and I know they don't transplant well at this size. When sold, they are almost always sold in a container.

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I turned the tree around so that the burned side - which looks strange with lots of little tiny twigs with light green "star" tufts - does not face the entrance walk. I am protecting the sunny side with soccer corner flags draped with burlap. Looks ugly but if I can get it through to the Fall then maybe it'll be OK.