Ken, your probably right. I have a lot of wind and a lot of snow. Its actually pretty harsh, because I live just over the top of a 350' ridge ... and its always quite snowy on this back side of the ridge. I'm not really a guru like many of you probably are ... but I'm trying to get away from what the masses are doing ... which is 75% austrian pine and maybe 20% blue spruce ... very boring. If I had to buy from forestfarm today, I would probably get 4 serbians (my favorite), a weeping serbian, a weeping norway and 1 or 2 hoopsi ... those are my favorites and all within my price range, but not tiny to start with. I know that probably not exotic ... but considering what I said above ... in my neighborhood, it would be a lot of variety. Do you have an opinion on the Bakeri variety of spruce ? Those also might fit my requirement for smaller size and narrower form. I'm particularly interested in those 5 gal. plants from FF ... yes, the shipping is high, but its still a lot cheaper than anything I buy locally (comperable to the hardware store). side note: do you think blue star juniper would do well for me?

Shadey: Ken and Dave are giving you excellent advice. We get a lot of questions from people worried about this or that little injury to a little tree, and almost all the time no human intervention is needed, and most often the intervention people want to try will only harm the tree. The only danger here is that the tree will form a double leader, but this happens a relatively small percentage of the time. And, what at first may look like a double leader forming, usually isn't. You need to give the tree some time--at least 3 years, and depending on how fast the tree is growing, probably longer. But, if after about 3 or 4 years, or after the tree has grown about 4 feet or so and you have two leaders of equal length with the tips close together, then cut one off. But if you have what looks like a double leader, but one side is growing at an angle away from the other, which is more erect, do nothing, or at least wait another year or two to be sure you really have a double leader. Usually one side of what seems like a double leader will begin growing away from the other and will become a side branch. Also, double leaders on open grown spruce are not always a problem and do not split apart. The branches growing from the base of each leader will cross the other, and graft to it, making a strong joining between the two that is very resistant to breakage. But having said that, a single leader is preferable, if only for aesthetic reasons. But I know of a number of spruce trees growing in the open with double leaders/trunks, and to me they are beautiful. Double leaders/trunks in forst grown spruce are a big problem--they will usually split apart sooner or later. --Spruce

Did the tree have weeping branchlets? Weeping a lot? I am not sure I can remember all the spruces I have seen and the bark color, so maybe this is not a positive ID for NS, but reddish, and very finely flaking reddish bark is typical of some NS trees at the age yours was, and is usually--maybe almost always--paired with a weeping habit. As for the foliage, there is a range of color variation in NS that I would not call exactly blue, but which one time caused a forester up here to confuse the more whitish colored NS with white spruce. Ah, the trees we have seen and "lost," or at least can't get back to see very easily. I remember one very remarkable NS tree I saw a few years ago--before I became interested in special cultivars. You won't believe this NS tree. It was in the back yard of a rural home where there was a country auction. The tree was very, very broadly pyramidal, and here is the amazing partthe side branches were very, very large and extended very much parallel to the ground with no sweep. This tree was probably about 28 inches in diameter, and the lower limbs that stretched out so amazingly horizontal were really, really thick and longthey must have been 8 inches, maybe one to two 10 inches in diameter. And they stretched outward for what must have been 20 feet or more. Can you picture this? It is hard, I know. I never saw anything like it before or since--nothing like it in a NS or any other tree, for that matter. Now where is this tree? I wish I knew. It was somewhere on a small back road north of US Route 40 where it crosses the line from MD into PA. Now that seems precise enough, but I could drive all those rural roads for a week and maybe not get back to that spot. Well, there are other special NS trees I have seen and think should be graftedmaybe I will find some excuse later to describe a couple more. --Spruce P.S. I am at my timberland now and spent the day thinning in my NS groves. Im back!! I havent felt so strong in a long time. I thought of you and your new NS groves. One day they will tower like minemaybe even more so. My spirit played and danced in the tops of these towering trees today, gliding among the high curtains of wonderful green weeping foliage!!

I have never posted, but thanks for the answer. I bought the tree in December 2011 and covered the pot with bags I had of mulch. When summer arrived, I had to go away for a month so it never got planted until July. My husband added 2 gallons of water everyday until I came home to plant it. I don't like anyone in my flower beds, but me. I will look for another small tree to plant in front of it. I did plant the ball last year with some Myke. I hope that helped it. My ground is very damp. I put my hands down there last week when it was very warm here in Ottawa. The nursery who sold me the tree, said to leave at least 2-3 inches of the crown out of the ground. Otherwise I cannot get air to the roots. I am new at this, so I am looking for some experienced people who can help me. Thanks for the info.