Norway spruce

Norway spruce: how do you recognise it?

Habit

Tree of 30–50 m with a narrow, regular, conical crown about 7 m wide; the side shoots often hang down like curtains.

Needles

1–2.5 cm, stiff, pointed and square in cross-section (you can roll them between your fingers). They grow all round the twig on small woody pegs that remain when the needle falls.

Bark

Red-brown, thin and flaking in small round scales.

Cones

Hanging and cigar-shaped, 10–15 cm; they fall whole.

Difference from European silver fir

Silver fir has flat, soft needles with two white stripes, and upright cones.

Difference from Sitka spruce

Sitka spruce has even sharper, flattened needles with a blue-white underside.

Harvest and fruit: January–December · Pruning: August–September

Identify by feature: Prickly needles

Looks like it, but isn’t

• European silver fir Abies alba: flat, soft needles with two white stripes, and upright cones. Difference from European silver fir
• Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis): even sharper, flattened needles with a blue-white underside.

Why grow it?

• The classic Christmas tree, and the light green shoots in May are edible.
• The cones provide seed for squirrels, crossbills and woodpeckers.
• A dense, dark tree that gives birds shelter in winter.
• Dwarf forms such as the bird’s nest spruce suit any garden.

Norway spruce: where does it grow best?

• Sun to partial shade; it tolerates some shade when young.
• Acid, moisture-retentive soil; on dry sand it suffers from drought and bark beetles in hot summers.
• Shallow roots: give it a sheltered spot well away from the house, as it can blow over in a storm. Under a Norway spruce it is dark and dry, and almost nothing grows there.
• Allow for 30–50 m in height and a crown of about 7 m: only for a park or a very large garden.

Light

Sun or partial shade

Legal basis

Acid soil

Moisture

Normal

Size

40 m tall, 7 m wide

Hardiness

Throughout Belgium, no protection needed

Goes well with

• Silver birch: Pale trunks and leaves against the dark spruce, on the same acid soil.
• Rowan: White flowers and orange berries at the sunny edge.
• Bilberry: A low, native shrub for acid soil at the edge of a group of spruces.
• Rhododendron: Likes the same acid, moist soil and flowers in May beside a dwarf form.

Good and bad companions

Goes well with

• Like the acid soil under this tree: heather, rhododendron, japanese skimmia, raspberry, highbush blueberry, witch hazel, broom, gorse
• Tolerate the shade under this tree: oregon grape, rhododendron, oleaster, japanese skimmia, garden privet, camellia, laurustinus, box-leaved honeysuckle

Best kept away from

• Sun-loving plants get too little light under the dense crown: english lavender, heather, butterfly bush, blackthorn, highbush blueberry, sea buckthorn, japanese rose, broom

Norway spruce: when and how to plant it?

1. Plant from October to April when the ground isn’t frozen.
2. Choose a young plant: a forestry transplant or a small pot-grown tree establishes better than a large one.
3. A root-balled Christmas tree often has badly cut-back roots: after the holidays, let it acclimatise somewhere cool first and plant it in mild weather.
4. Plant shallowly, with the top of the root ball level with the soil.
5. Water after planting and during dry spells in the first year.

Care

Watering

Later on too in dry summers: with its shallow roots a spruce soon suffers from drought.

Feeding

Not needed; leave the needles where they fall.

Mulch

A layer of wood chips or needles keeps the soil cool and moist.

Checking

After dry summers, look for small bore holes and brown boring dust on the trunk: the sign of the spruce bark beetle.

Tip: For a small garden, choose a dwarf form such as the bird’s nest spruce (‘Nidiformis’): it grows slowly, becomes wider than tall and stays low for a very long time.

Norway spruce: when to prune it?

Pruning months: August–September.

When: Dead, diseased and broken branches can be removed at any time of year. If pruning is needed, do it in August–September.

How:

• Never remove the top and don’t prune into bare wood.
• Lower branches can be sawn off back to the trunk, just outside the branch collar.
• If a branch with normal, vigorous growth shoots out of shape on a dwarf form, remove it completely.

Caution: A spruce won’t regrow from old, bare wood: a bare patch stays bare.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Sowing

In autumn, pick closed cones and let them open somewhere warm. Sow the seeds in spring in a tray; they germinate easily.

Cuttings

Dwarf forms are raised from cuttings or grafted; that is a job for the nursery.

Norway spruce: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy throughout Belgium: no protection needed.

• Fully hardy.
• Wet snow can break branches or the top; in storms it is easily blown over on wet or shallow soil.

Diseases and pests

• Spruce bark beetle: A bark beetle that attacks weakened spruces, especially after dry summers: bore holes, brown boring dust and a crown that quickly turns red. Fell affected trees quickly and remove the wood.
• Green spruce aphid: A green aphid that feeds on the older needles in late winter: they turn yellow and drop. Mainly after mild winters; the tree usually recovers.
• Pineapple gall: Small, pineapple-like galls at the base of young shoots, caused by an adelgid. Harmless; cut them off if you don’t like the look of them.
• Drought and storms: In dry summers it turns brown; in storms it blows over. Choose a moisture-retentive, sheltered spot.

Through the year

• January: Shake wet snow off young trees; let a root-balled Christmas tree acclimatise and plant it in mild weather.
• March: Planting season; look for yellow needles caused by the green spruce aphid.
• May: Pick the young, light green shoots for syrup.
• July: Water in dry spells; watch out for the spruce bark beetle.
• August: Saw off lower branches; trim dwarf forms.
• September: Last month for pruning.
• October: Planting season starts; pick cones for sowing.
• December: Christmas tree: keep it cool indoors and water the root ball.

What can you use it for?

Wood

Construction timber, paper and the finest tonewood for violins and piano soundboards.

Food and drink

The young, light green shoots in May are edible, for example as a syrup.

Also used for

The classic Christmas tree.

For wildlife

The cones provide seed for squirrels, crossbills and woodpeckers.

Edible and useful

Young shoots (May)

The young, pale green shoots in May (sometimes from late April), while they are soft and not yet prickly. They taste fresh and lemony. The classic is ‘spruce honey’, a thick syrup to spread on bread, stir into tea or pour over yoghurt. Also good finely chopped in herb butter.

Resin (January–December)

Resin: only collect resin that has already oozed from old wounds or breaks, and never cut into the bark yourself. Hardened resin can go into a salve for rough, dry skin.

Storing

Shoots keep for a few days in the fridge, or for months in the freezer. Keep resin dry in a jar; it lasts for years.

Fermenting

Spruce beer is an old fermented drink: an infusion of young shoots with sugar or molasses, fermented with yeast. Sailors used to take it on long voyages.

Caution: Do not confuse spruce with yew: flat, dark green needles, red berries and deadly poisonous. Spruce needles are four-sided, prickly and set singly on small woody pegs. Take only a few shoots per branch and never the leading shoot. Resin is very sticky: wear old clothes, use an old jar, and remove it from your hands with a little oil. If you are sensitive to resin or turpentine, test the salve on a small patch of skin first and do not use it on open wounds. Pick well away from busy roads and sprayed fields, and never eat anything you have not identified with certainty.

Eating and using is at your own risk: see the terms of use.

Recipes

• Spruce honey (Syrup · ± 500 ml · 1 hr 15 + overnight steeping)
• Spruce-resin salve (Skin and body care · ± 100 ml · 1 hr)
• Spruce tip vinegar (Vinegar · ± 500 ml · 10 min + 3 weeks infusing)
• Resin firelighters (Other · 12 firelighters · 30 min + 1 hr setting)

Good for wildlife

Birds

Berries, seeds or insects as food, or a place to nest.

Did you know?

• The classic Christmas tree, although that role has largely been taken over by the Nordmann fir.
• Norway spruce is the finest tonewood for violins and piano soundboards.
• In Sweden there is a Norway spruce, ‘Old Tjikko’, whose root system is said to be around 9,500 years old.
• Norway spruce was planted on a massive scale in the Ardennes from the 19th century. After the dry summers from 2018 onwards, the spruce bark beetle killed large areas there.
• In Sweden stands ‘Old Tjikko’, a Norway spruce that keeps producing new trunks: carbon dating puts its root system at around 9,500 years old.