Picea Omorika ~ Serbian Spruce ~ Christmas Tree Conifer Bonsai ~ Rare 10 Seeds ~

The Serbian Spruce is a delightful narrow crowned evergreen with a blue-green underside to each needle giving the whole tree a wonderful silvery appearance. It is a slower growing and more elegant tree compared to many other members of the spruce family. It has an important place in parks and large gardens because of its very attractive crown form and ability to grow on a wide range of soils, including alkaline, clay, acid and sandy soil and even chalk providing adequate moisture is present. It was originally discovered in 1875 growing in a small area of forest linking eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina and western Serbia it is now widely planted throughout northern Europe and North America mostly as a specimen ornamental tree and also as an alternative Christmas tree. It needs to be grown in an open position as it cannot grow in the shade. A good wind-firm tree that resists strong winds but not maritime exposure or atmospheric pollution. It is also very frost hardy and comes into growth very late in the spring, making it suitable for planting in frosty valley bottoms and frost pockets where other earlier flushing species such as the Norway Spruce would be badly damaged. Outside its native range, Serbian spruce is of major importance as an ornamental tree in large gardens, valued in northern Europe and North America for its very attractive crown form and ability to grow on a wide range of soils, including alkaline, clay, acid and sandy soil, although it prefers moist, drained loam. It is also grown to a small extent in forestry for Christmas trees, timber and paper production, particularly in northern Europe, though its slow growth makes it less important than Sitka spruce or Norway spruce. In cultivation, it has produced hybrids with the closely related Black spruce and also with Sitka spruce.