Picea abies 'Echiniformis' / Hedgehog Norway spruce

In a Porterhowse Farms catalog, Don Howse describes Picea abies 'Echiniformis' as a tidy cushion of dense, thick, dark-green foliage on small branchlets radiating from the core of the plant. Its propensity for very prickly needles gives the plant its common name, "Hedgehog spruce". This slow-growing selection will grow only 1 to 2 inches (2.5 - 5 cm) per year, resulting in an irregular globe, 15 to 18 inches (35 - 45 cm) tall and wide after 10 years.

This is a very old cultivar that originally listed in the early 1870s by Peter Lawson and Son nursery, Scotland, United Kingdom. It is similar to, and often confused with P. abies 'Gregoryana.' In the Latin language, "echiniformis" translates into hedgehog-form.

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The plant(s) pictured are located in the Harper Collection, Hidden Lake Garden, Tipton, Michigan. The picture was taken in 2000 during the ACS tour of Hidden Lake Gardens.
Photo by Ken Church
Picea abies 'Echiniformis' in the Harper Collection of Dwarf & Rare Conifers, Hidden Lake Gardens in Tipton, Michigan, August of 2005.
Photo by Dax Herbst
Picea abies 'Echiniformis' in the Harper Collection, Hidden Lake Gardens, Tipton, Michigan, July 2016.
Photo by William Dunagin

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