# Blue Spruce (Picea pungens)

> Blue spruce, Picea pungens: a large tree of 30 to 70 feet where planted, for zones 2 to 8, how fast it grows, and the natives we grow for the same ground.

Blue Whale Trees, a native tree nursery in the United States. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/species/blue-spruce/

![A mature blue spruce with a dense, narrow conical crown of dark green branches at a meadow's edge under passing clouds](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/species/blue-spruce-1000.jpg?v=c99987d9 "A mature blue spruce in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. One at Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, was at least 456 years old.")
*Photo: Jeffrey J. Witcosky, USDA Forest Service, [CC BY 3.0 us](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/deed.en) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APicea_pungens_USDA1.jpg))*

Large tree, 30 to 70 feet where planted, zones 2 to 8; full sun or part shade; dry, average or wet ground.

We do not grow blue spruce, and it is not in our shop. This page gathers what our tools say about it and the natives we grow for the same ground.

## At a glance

| Fact | Blue Spruce |
| --- | --- |
| Other names | Colorado blue spruce, Colorado spruce, Rocky Mountain spruce, water spruce, blue Colorado spruce |
| Form | Large tree |
| Height, feet | 30 to 70 where planted; up to 181 in its native stands |
| Spread, feet | Up to 20 |
| Zones | 2 to 8 |
| Sun | Full sun or part shade |
| Soil moisture | Dry, average or wet ground |
| Growth | Slow |
| Leaves | Evergreen |
| Traits | Wildlife value, hedge or screen, erosion control |
| Pollen | April to June |
| Fruit | Cones, August to September |
| First crop | About 20 years (most seed from 50 to 150) |
| Pollination | One bears; a second improves the crop. Each tree carries both male and female cones and the wind carries the pollen, but in spruces the share of filled seed falls as self-pollination rises, so a lone tree tends to set less good seed. |
| Lifespan | Can live 600 years or more, and the oldest dated one was at least 456. Only a tiny share of trees has ever been ring-counted or cross-dated. |
| Transplanting | The Morton Arboretum's page on blue spruce marks it as one that transplants well. |
| Black walnut | Not named on the Morton Arboretum's lists |
| Ground | Stream banks, floodplain forests and rich moist slopes |
| Native in | 6 states |

Blue spruce is native in 6 states: [Arizona](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AZ), [Colorado](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CO), [Idaho](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ID), [New Mexico](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NM), [Utah](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=UT) and [Wyoming](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WY). The states are the USDA PLANTS Database's records, with the native range read from Silvics of North America, the NRCS plant guide and the Fire Effects Information System. The USDA PLANTS Database also records it growing wild beyond that range in [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY) and [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), where it is naturalized, not native.

## What our tools say

- [How fast it grows and how big it gets, by site](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=blue-spruce): the growth estimator
- [Whether it suits your zone, sun and soil](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=blue-spruce): the planting-site check
- [How far from a house, wires and a septic field](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=blue-spruce&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree): the planting-distance tool
- [What grows with it in the wild and in a yard](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=blue-spruce): the companion species tool
- [When to plant it where you live](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=blue-spruce): the planting-window tool
- [When it sheds pollen and bears cones, month by month](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=blue-spruce): the bloom and fruit calendar
- [How to sow its seed, with dates for your place](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=blue-spruce): the seed sowing planner
- [How many to plant for a crop of seed](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=blue-spruce:2): the pollination planner
- [Whether one you have can be moved, and what the move takes](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=blue-spruce): the transplant planner
- [How old one is, from its trunk](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-age/index.html.md?species=blue-spruce): the tree age calculator
- [How a big one scores against the champion trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/big-tree/index.html.md?species=blue-spruce): the big-tree measurer

## For the same ground, we grow

- [American Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-elm/index.html.md) (*Ulmus americana*): large tree, 60 to 80 feet, zones 2 to 9. Shares stream banks and floodplain forests in the wild.
- [Common Hackberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-hackberry/index.html.md) (*Celtis occidentalis*): large tree, 40 to 60 feet, zones 2 to 9. Shares stream banks and floodplain forests in the wild.
- [Balsam Poplar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/balsam-poplar/index.html.md) (*Populus balsamifera*): large tree, 30 to 100 feet, zones 2 to 5. Shares stream banks and floodplain forests in the wild.
- [Peachleaf Willow](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/peachleaf-willow/index.html.md) (*Salix amygdaloides*): medium tree, 35 to 60 feet, zones 2 to 8. Shares stream banks and floodplain forests in the wild.
- [Western Soapberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/western-soapberry/index.html.md) (*Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii*): medium tree, 20 to 50 feet, zones 5 to 9. Shares stream banks and floodplain forests in the wild.
- [Black Cherry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-cherry/index.html.md) (*Prunus serotina*): large tree, 50 to 80 feet, zones 2 to 9. Shares rich moist slopes in the wild.
- [Every companion of blue spruce in the companion species tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=blue-spruce)

## Read from

Its figures come from Silvics of North America, the Forest Service's Fire Effects Information System, the Woody Plant Seed Manual, the USDA PLANTS Database, NC State Extension, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Morton Arboretum, the Wildflower Center, Cal Poly's SelecTree, Oregon State University's Landscape Plants, Utah State University Extension, the Gymnosperm Database and the International Tree-Ring Data Bank.