# Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea)

> The fragrant Christmas-tree fir of the North Woods, with flat, dark needles of strong balsam scent, upright purple cones and a narrow spire of a crown.

Also called eastern fir, Canada balsam, blister fir, northern balsam. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/balsam-fir/

![Balsam fir (Abies balsamea) upright purplish cones beaded with white resin on a branch tip](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/balsam-fir-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAbies_balsamea_cones_Niapiskau_02.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Medium tree
- Mature height: 40 to 75 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 2 to 7
- Grows wild in: The Appalachians, floodplain forests, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: 16 states, north and west to [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN) and south to [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA) ([Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV) and [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI)). Also recorded, not native, in [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN) and [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH)
- Sun: Full, Part, Shade
- Soil moisture: Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Slow
- Flowers: May to June
- Fruit: Cones, August to October
- First crop: About 20 years (regular crops after about 30)
- Mature spread: 25 ft
- Traits: Evergreen, Wildlife value, Hedge or screen, Tolerates shade, Tolerates wet soil, Winter interest
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

Balsam fir is the only fir native to the Northeast, a tree of cool northern forests, swamps and mountain slopes from Labrador to Minnesota. Its fragrance and long-held needles make it one of the most popular Christmas trees, and its needles fill wreaths and balsam pillows. Moose browse it through the winter, and deer shelter in its stands. It differs from our Fraser fir, its southern mountain kin, in cones whose bracts mostly hide between the scales instead of curling over them. Connecticut and New Jersey list it as endangered. Use it as a fragrant evergreen screen where summers stay cool and the soil stays moist.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Balsam fir grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It matures at 40 to 75 feet with a narrow crown 15 to 25 feet wide. It is short-lived for a conifer, with a maximum age of about 200 years, though the oldest tree dated by its rings reached 245. It fails in hot, humid summers and seldom does well outside northern New England, the Great Lakes states and Canada.

Cones can appear on trees as young as 15, and good seed crops come every 2 to 4 years. Pollen is shed in May and June. The upright cones, 2 to 4 inches long and purple when young, ripen from late August to October. Spruce and ruffed grouse eat the needles and buds, and red squirrels eat the seed.

It grows wild from Labrador and Newfoundland west to Alberta, and in the United States from Minnesota and northeastern Iowa east through Wisconsin, Michigan and New York to New England. It reaches south to central Pennsylvania, with scattered stands high in the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia.

## How to grow Balsam Fir

Balsam fir wants a cool, moist site and does best in full sun, though it grows in shade. It needs a slightly acid soil that stays moist, and it takes wet ground but grows poorly in heavy clay and on dry, exposed sites. Its roots are shallow, so shelter it from strong wind. Plant it 15 feet from a wall, and set trees 15 feet apart for a screen. Keep it more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant in early spring or fall, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Sow the seed outdoors in fall without any treatment, and seedlings come up in late spring. For a spring sowing, keep it damp in the refrigerator for one to two months first. Expect only a quarter to half of the seeds to sprout.

Water weekly through the first two summers and in every dry spell after that, since it succeeds as a screen only where its need for moisture is met. Keep a mulch of leaves or wood chips over the shallow roots. Moose, hares and deer browse young trees, which slows them but seldom kills them, so cage saplings where browsers are many. It needs no pruning beyond dead wood.

Each tree carries both male and female cones, and the wind carries the pollen. A lone fir can bear normal-looking cones whose seeds are empty, so trees in a group bear better. The spruce budworm, which prefers fir to spruce, is its worst pest, and trees usually die after 3 to 5 years of steady defoliation. The balsam woolly adelgid, an introduced insect, can kill a tree within 3 years of attacking its trunk. The elongate hemlock scale also feeds on fir, yellowing the needles and thinning the crown. Rot can begin at about 40 years and infects more than half of trees by 70, weakening them against wind.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: Balsam Fir, Frank 1990](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/balsam-fir)
- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Abies balsamea, Uchytil 1991](https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/species-reviews/abibal)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Abies chapter, Edwards](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Abies.pdf)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 2: Abies balsamea](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233500002)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Abies balsamea](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/abies-balsamea/)
- [The Morton Arboretum: Balsam fir](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/balsam-fir/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Abies balsamea](https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=284972)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Abies balsamea](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ABBA)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Fact Sheet: Balsam fir](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/factsheet/pdf/fs_abba.pdf)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: balsam fir](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=119)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Abies balsamea](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/abies/abies-balsamea/)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Abies balsamea](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.152370/Abies_balsamea)
- [Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection: Connecticut's Endangered, Threatened and Special Concern Species 2015](https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/DEEP/wildlife/pdf_files/nongame/ETS15pdf.pdf)
- [New Jersey Natural Heritage Program: List of Endangered Plant Species and Plant Species of Concern, January 2024](https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/parksandforests/njplantlist.pdf)
- [Other state lists: Maryland Natural Heritage Program, March 2026](https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Documents/Maryland-NHP-RTE-Plant-List.pdf)
- [Virginia Tech, Eastern OLDLIST of maximum tree ages: Abies balsamea](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/olds/detail.cfm?genus=Abies&species=balsamea)
- [Penn State Extension: Elongate Hemlock Scale, Hoover](https://extension.psu.edu/elongate-hemlock-scale)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [How fast every tree and shrub we grow gets tall: growth rate, A to Z](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/growth-rates/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)
- [Leaf litter, not wood chips, under the canopy](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/leaf-litter-not-wood-chips/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other firs (Abies) we grow: [Fraser Fir](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/fraser-fir/index.html.md)
- Under its canopy: [Squashberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/squashberry/index.html.md), [Virginia Sweetspire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/virginia-sweetspire/index.html.md) and [Canada Yew](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/canada-yew/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Balsam Fir, add ?species=balsam-fir with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 2, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=balsam-fir&zone=2&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Balsam Fir](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=balsam-fir): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=balsam-fir): whether Balsam Fir can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can lift it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Balsam Fir as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=balsam-fir (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Balsam Fir is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=balsam-fir (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Balsam Fir needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 2 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=balsam-fir:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Balsam Fir where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=balsam-fir&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Balsam Fir goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=balsam-fir&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Balsam Fir flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=balsam-fir