Tree · Pinaceae
Norway Spruce
Picea abies
Tough, fast, and cold-hardy down to -40°F (-40°C), the Norway spruce grows into a towering evergreen with sweeping, pendulous branches.
Full sun
Every 7–14 days
USDA 2–7
39–59 ft · 12–18 m
Overview
Norway spruce is that big, fast evergreen you'll spot in countless windbreaks, screens, and old farmyard plantings all across the cold north. It's from Europe originally, but it's settled right into temperate gardens everywhere, mostly because it climbs so fast and takes whatever the weather throws at it. On a grown tree you'll see gracefully drooping branchlets hanging off upswept limbs, and that's what gives the whole thing its soft, weeping look.
Just know upfront that this is a tree for space and patience. It tops 100 feet in the wild and a good 40 to 60 feet in a yard, with a broad pyramidal crown and shallow roots that spread out sideways instead of digging deep. Long cones, the biggest of any spruce, dangle from the upper branches and add to the whole picture. Give it room and it turns into a real landmark, but crowd it up against a house and you'll be sorry inside a decade.
What really makes it a workhorse is its toughness. It handles brutal cold, takes all kinds of sites, and stands up to the needlecast and canker diseases that give fussier spruces so much grief. Keep its feet moist and its head in the sun, and honestly, it barely asks for anything else.
Care
The short version: full sun, moist but well-drained slightly acidic soil, and plenty of elbow room. It's cold-hardy and pretty low-maintenance once it's settled, so you'll barely need to feed it and only have to prune it lightly.
Light
Norway spruce wants full sun, and that's where it grows densest and healthiest, with light all day long. It'll put up with some partial sun, but a shaded tree thins out and gets more open, and good sun helps keep those needle diseases away too.
Water
Try to keep the soil consistently moist but well-drained, watering deeply while it's getting established and through any dry spell. It really doesn't like either extreme, sulking in soggy ground and struggling on hot, dry sites, so water it roughly every 7 to 14 days whenever the rain comes up short.
Soil
Give it moist, well-drained, sandy loam on the acidic side, ideally a pH of 5.0 to 6.0. It's flexible about a fair range of ground, but it really can't stand heavy, waterlogged clay, where its shallow roots just can't breathe.
Temperature
Not many trees are tougher in the cold, since it takes temperatures from -40°F to 95°F (-40°C to 35°C). It's happiest in the cool north and grows poorly where the summers run long and hot.
Humidity
Ordinary outdoor humidity suits it just fine, so there's no number to chase here. Air movement matters way more, since still, crowded conditions invite the needlecast fungi that bother stressed trees.
Feeding
An established Norway spruce rarely needs feeding and does great on its own in decent ground. If growth seems slow, a balanced slow-release feed in spring is plenty, and rich soils might not need any at all.
Pruning
Keep the pruning light, just taking out dead, damaged, or crossing branches in late winter. Never top the tree, since that wrecks its whole form. And if a weevil kills the leader, just train one upright side shoot to take over.
Repotting
none
Size & spacing
This is a forest giant in the making, hitting 40 to 60 feet (12 to 18 m) tall and spreading 25 to 30 feet (7.5 to 9 m) across. Plant it well clear of buildings, drives, and utilities, because its shallow roots run wide and that crown just keeps getting bigger.
When to plant
There's no harvest clock ticking with a spruce, just the right window to get it planted. Pop it in during spring or early fall so the roots settle before summer heat or deep winter cold shows up, and don't stress about the cold, since it's hardy all the way down through zone 2.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: spring or early fall
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 2–7
Temperature: down to -46°C
Troubleshooting
A healthy Norway spruce hardly ever gives you trouble, and when it does, it usually starts with a tree that's stressed or crowded. Keep half an eye on the top shoot and the inner needles, since that's where the first signs pop up. Find what matches below, then act before a setback has a chance to spread.
Top shoot dies and curls over like a shepherd's crook
See the very top wilt and hook over? That's almost always the white pine weevil, whose larvae bore down inside the leader and kill it off. Cut the dead leader out below the damage in mid to late spring, before the adults chew their way out, and then train one upright side shoot to become the new top. Keep an eye out for Cytospora canker too, since it can do much the same to a branch or leader when the weevil isn't the one to blame.
Fix:
- Prune out and destroy the infested dead leader below the damage in mid to late spring before adults emerge
- Train an upright side shoot to become the new leader
- Maintain tree vigor with adequate water and mulch
Inner needles go purple-brown and drop from the bottom up
When the older needles inside the tree turn purple-brown and start dropping, working their way up from the lowest branches, that's usually Rhizosphaera needlecast or a similar fungus finding a tree that's already stressed. Grab a hand lens and look at a fallen needle: you'll see rows of tiny black dots where a healthy one wears neat white waxy specks instead. Open things up by spacing plants and clearing crowding growth, water at the base rather than overhead, and take out the worst branches, because drought and root stress only make it worse.
Fix:
- Improve air circulation by spacing and removing competing vegetation
- Avoid overhead irrigation and wetting foliage
- Remove and destroy heavily infected branches
- Maintain consistent soil moisture and mulch
Stippled, bronzing needles with fine webbing in spring and fall
Needles that look stippled and bronzed with a bit of fine webbing usually mean the spruce spider mite has moved in, and it does its feeding in the cool of spring and fall. Want to be sure? Tap a branch over white paper and watch for little specks crawling around. A strong jet of water knocks most of them off, so start there, and only reach for horticultural oil if numbers stay high. And skip the broad-spectrum sprays, since they wipe out the predators that keep mites down.
Fix:
- Spray foliage with a strong jet of water to dislodge mites
- Apply horticultural oil or an approved miticide when populations are high
- Avoid broad-spectrum insecticides that kill mite predators
Toxicity
Good news if you've got pets or kids around: Norway spruce is not toxic. The only real hazard is a mechanical one, since the needles are stiff and sharp enough to prick skin, and a mouthful of swallowed needles might cause a passing stomach upset. But nothing about the tree is going to poison a cat, dog, or curious kid.
Safe for
People · Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Cats None
There's no poison here at all. If a cat bats at or nibbles the needles, it might drool or paw at its mouth from those sharp tips, but that's really all that's going on.
Dogs None
A dog's fine near this one. The stiff needles can scratch a curious nose, and a swallowed mouthful might mean a quick tummy upset, but there's no actual poison to worry about.
Horses Safe
This isn't toxic browse for horses. They'll usually leave the prickly foliage alone anyway, and a stray taste won't hurt them a bit.
Rabbits Safe
Rabbits can hang out in the same garden as this tree, no problem, because the needles hold nothing poisonous to them.
Livestock Safe
Cattle, goats, and sheep aren't at risk of poisoning from the foliage. Some conifers spell trouble for a herd, but spruce just isn't one of them.
Birds Safe
Birds are big fans of this tree, since it gives them cover and seed. And there's nothing about it that's toxic to them.
People Safe
No poison worries for people either. Those sharp needles can prick bare skin, so handle fresh branches with a bit of care, but the tree itself isn't toxic.
Needles are stiff and prickly and can poke skin; ingested needles may cause mild mouth or stomach irritation or, in quantity, GI obstruction, so discourage chewing.
Varieties
Beyond the towering species tree, Norway spruce has spun off a bunch of distinct cultivars, everything from weeping giants to tidy little dwarfs. These are the ones worth knowing by name.
'Pendula'
This one weeps hard, with branches that pour straight down, so you can stake it upright for a dramatic accent or just let it sprawl as a ground cover.
'Nidiformis'
The bird's nest spruce is a slow little dwarf that stays just a few feet tall, and its flat top even dips into a nest-like hollow right at the center.
'Acrocona'
This small, irregular, often semi-weeping tree puts on quite a show with bright red-pink young cones hanging off its branch tips.
'Cupressina'
It's a narrow column with branches swept upward, so it shakes off snow load and tucks a tall screen into a tight spot.
How to propagate
How you make more Norway spruce really comes down to what you're after: the wild species comes true from seed, but those prized weeping and dwarf forms have to be cloned.
SeedModerate
Sow stratified seed in spring · 2 to 4 years to a transplantable seedling
Want the true species instead of a named cultivar? Then seed's the way, since cultivars won't come true like this. Give the seed about a month of cold, moist stratification before sowing in spring, and then just be patient, because it takes 2 to 4 years to grow a seedling big enough to move.
GraftingDemanding
Late winter under cover · 1 to 2 years
Those dwarf and weeping cultivars like 'Pendula' and 'Nidiformis'? They stay true to type through grafting, joined onto seedling rootstock in late winter under cover. It's tricky, no question, but a graft knits and grows on within 1 to 2 years.
LayeringModerate
Spring · 1 to 2 years to root
The prostrate and weeping forms basically layer themselves whenever low branches rest on the soil and root where they touch. Just peg one down in spring and it'll root over 1 to 2 years, ready to cut free and move once it's established.
Myths
Norway spruce and Colorado blue spruce are basically interchangeable.
They look alike, sure, but they don't really swap in for each other. Norway spruce grows faster, takes heat and all sorts of sites in stride, and shrugs off Rhizosphaera needlecast and Cytospora canker way better than blue spruce does. If you want a tougher, longer-lived landscape tree, Norway spruce is the safer pick.
Spruce Christmas trees are poisonous to cats and dogs.
Here's the thing: spruce isn't a true toxin. Chewed needles are at most mildly or mechanically irritating to the mouth and stomach, so what you're really watching for is a passing stomach upset or, if a lot goes down, a blockage. The real danger is the sharp, indigestible needles, not poison.