Sitka Spruce 'Peve Wiesje'

Sitka Spruce 'Peve Wiesje' (Picea sitchensis 'Peve Wiesje') is a dense silvery-blue ball you will want to run your hand over. Short prickly needles sit on evenly spread shoots, and in the sun the crown shimmers.

This little one is made for the smallest settings: a rock garden, a group of other conifers, a container on the terrace where you see it close up. In ten years it reaches only about 0.3 m tall and wide, so it will never outgrow its neighbours and needs no pruning at all.

Key characteristics:

• What makes it special: It puts on just 2.5-4 cm a year, so it keeps its shape by itself and never asks for the shears.
• Dimensions: At ten years it is a neat cushion 0.3 m tall and 0.3 m wide.
• Light: It asks for full sun - that is where the needles hold their silvery-blue tone and the crown stays dense.
• Soil: It likes a deep, moist but well-drained soil of neutral or acid reaction: loam, clay and sand all suit it.
• Watering: Keep the soil evenly moist and well drained - the one thing it dislikes is prolonged standing water at the roots.
• Care: No pruning is needed at all; just keep an eye out for adelgids, conifer aphid and red spider mite.
• Landscape use: A fine choice for a formal rock garden, a mixed conifer planting or a container in a prominent spot.
• Origin: The cultivar began as a witch's broom found in the late 1990s at Lottum in the Netherlands by Piet Vergeldt.