AL! You found me!!! I'm so happy. Thanks very much for responding. Yes, I can absolutely be patient and 3 or 4 years will be more than fine with me if I have an end result even half as cool as your blue spruce. To the rest of you, I absolutely appreciate your input also. Being a beginner at all this,I am fully aware that I might not be able to achieve the results I want, just because another who happens to have a world of experience, did. But I'm willing to take the chance for several reasons. 1) the tree, while admired maybe by many, is expendable to me. If it doesn't work out, I can just remove it. 2) I have all the time in the world. We plan to raise the kids in this house. 3) most importantly-- Al's globe blue spruce is actually what led me to gardenweb in the first place! I joined last year bc of some plumbing issues but never even checked out any of the garden areas. Then a few weeks ago I was googling all kinds of conifer stuff and came across what I thought was the coolest little mini-tree ever, in one of the coolest gardens ever, and I tried emailing the dude who posted it all... and he actually emailed me back. Pretty exciting if you're me, which I am. Hehe. So if Al says I could give it a shot, then by golly I am going to give it a shot. I've got nothing to lose really except some time. But at worst I'm sure I'll learn a thing or two along the way-- like the best ways to not get needles in my arms, Ken : ) so even that couldn't be wasted. Ok so now Al, can you recommend a method to start this process? I'm more than happy to get a book if you have one you can recommend-- I don't want to burden you any more than I have to. I know in your email you mentioned taking the top off your spruce-- is that something I should do too or is it too late for that? I know I said she's expendable but I'd obvioulsy like to do whatever in my power to avoid that. Also on another note, isn't there a way that I can click on a members name and see all their posts? I can't seem to find a way to even see *my own* without going back into each forum and finding my post somewhere in the list. As I spend more time on here, that is going to get very difficult. And I'd really like to see more of what you've all written/posted, both for inspiration and to gather more info and even to just have fun looking at all the beautiful stuff. I'd love to see some of your hosta Ken, for example- I see it's your favorite forum. I love hostas but again, just a newbie. Thank you everyone and Al especially, for making my day : )

Hi Longavea, I would be interested to save your photos for use of the American Conifer Society and British Conifer Society and the new forming Dutch Conifer Society. Please send me an email if this is ok along with your first and last name and anything else you would like your photos to be credited too. An example: Photo donation: Dax Herbst, IL USA. or if a website is connected: Photo donation: Rich Eyre; 'Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery, Woodstock, IL. http://www.richsfoxwillowpines.com/ etc- Thanks for a reply. My email is on "My Page" Dax

David, unfortunately my recent checks about a month ago weren't helpful in identifying this fungal pathogen, so it continues to devastate trees and shrubs. Not just blue spruce trees are affected, but so are maple trees and oaks, and people around here are having many of them cut down. Just last month my two neighbors had 5 of these large trees cut down. Mountain ash trees are dying too. And I'd say that 50% of the white pines in this area (southern New Hampshire) are either dead or in decline from this disease. I don't spray mine since I consider them somewhat of a weed, and mine are slowly and continuously losing needles. I expect them to die within a few years. The good news is that this year I've kept up spraying with Mancozeb every two weeks since May 1st. Every tree and shrub I've sprayed (where my spray can reach the foliage) is very healthy. I'm now also working on my grown son's 4 dying spruce trees to see if I can restart growth on the now bare trunk and on other branches. But don't try a "ground drench" with Propiconazole - I tried that last year and it killed off beneficial ground bacteria, harming the trees & shrubs. Fortunately, they're recovering this year with fertilizer and spraying. Norway spruce and linden trees seem to resist this disease best.

are you absolutely sure on this ID ... there are a couple holiday type conifers.. which are sold as basically throw away ... .. plants after the holidays ...usually sold in 4 inch pots ... [google of the latin.. tells me this is one of them] if it was outdoors when you got it ... it is probably dormant ... and could probably be planted in mother earth ... subject to the horrible OH clay down in columbus ... i would NEVER try to winter over a conifer/tree.,... in a 4 inch pot ... i would.. at a min ... repot it.. with NO root disturbance.. to a one gal... with proper media ... i might even just sink pot and all in the larger pot ... its all about maintaining the roots dormant... on days temps spike.. as tiny pots.. warm fast ... trees ... of which conifers are ... like a sip of water ... and then near total drainage .... even in august.. in MI ... i might water mine once a month or so .... but then.. i dont have then in 4 inch pots ... let it near dry .... in between waterings ... and do fully understand ... a dormant tree does not need all that much water .... its also problematic.. that we dont know the media already in the pot ... media for production.. in a small pot.. can be wildly divergent from what you might need ... it might hold too much water on purpose.. and that purpose is NOT yours ... you are dreaming that your sunporch might only be a few degrees warmer ... i smoke in my attached garage ... and it can be 15 to 30 degrees warmer than outside.. on sunny days... in mid winter ..... and that wont be good ... you are spot on on the wind issue .... reducing that is good ... ken ps: dannaher... i meant to enable you ... i did not expect you to go asking them.. how to take care of a plant you bought elsewhere ... maybe the website will have info .... Here is a link that might be useful: galena.. westerville.. whatever ...