tunilla, certainly not 'Koster' because the colour would be a duller blue against 'Hoopsii' the habit much more columnar in comparrison to your plant, plus the main branches always point in a slightly downward angle. Could be 'Hoopsii' but you can never really be sure when plants come with no label.

it doesnt look blue enough for hoopsi.. i do not have koster ...

but it might be the mid day.. full sun pic ...

can you try a pic or two at dusk ... just as the sky is turning pink .. yyou will be amazed at the pic color difference ...

the growth habit doesnt look right either.. but maybe the nursery did some shearing ...

pic below of mine

ken

pic taken in full sun
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pic taken at dusk
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Bakeri has that same color, but is probably narrower.

The closeup pic looks like my Hoopsi.

The slightly irregular branches don't, could it be Thompsen ?

'Kosteri' does have an irregular habit. He was probably right the first time, then saw something that made him have erroneous second thoughts. If you can, look at some other 'Kosteri' thought to be labeled correctly somewhere and see how yours compares.

Doubt it's 'Thompsen' that one is more regular in shape with thicker branches and not as bright as 'Hoopsii' but a great spruce all the same.

Hi everybody.Thanks for the observations so far.The irregular shape of this tree may be due to the fact that the guy I got it from is into Bonsai,Niwaki and so on.I wouldn't be surprised if he'd had a go with the pruners and finally decided to get rid of it.I did a little pruning myself in order to shape it a bit,so...may have to wait a few years to see what sort of tree it is.Anyway,I took a few more pics when the weather was overcast.T.

To close to call...if push comes to shove I would go for 'Hoopsii'.

'Hoopsii' tends to be unstable and sometimes is necessary to stake for straight up form. Even then irregularities are present which don't necessarily take away from the conifers presentation. Notice the open areas in the photo I posted. Photo quality is poor due to clouds and rain.

Irregular shaped conifers can be quite interesting. If it were mine I would let it do its thing. The lower branches hanging over the rock already present a quite natural look and I assume that is what you are after considering the amount of rock in your landscape plan.

Dave Picea pungens 'Hoopsii'
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Hi Dave.I do agree about irregular shaped trees in general.
I understand that depending on wich area of the motherplant
the scionwwod was taken 'Hoopsii' can be variable .Mine seems to produce strong-growing side shoots,so it is those that I'm keeping an eye on,in order that they don't take away too much vigour from the leading shoot,wich I did stake.In any case,it's one of my favourite plants in the garden,whatever it's name.Other cv's of Picea pungens wich are sometimes available are'Fat Albert','Iseli Foxtail'and 'Globosa',wich also seems to be quite variable.
Is there a significant difference with 'St Mary's Broom'? T.

T. In my dealings with 'St.Mary's Broom' it appears to be quite stable.

It will produce a main leader over time and should be cut out if you want to maintain a low mounding conifer.

Dave

Thanks,Dave T.