Picea abies 'Ohlendorffii' / Ohlendorff's Norway spruce

Picea abies 'Ohlendorfii' is a compact, slow-growing, bushy selection of Norway spruce that is flat-topped and globose when young, becoming broadly conical with age. Branching is rather loose and somewhat open and foliage is species-typical. After 10 years of growth, a mature specimen will measure 40 inches (1 m) tall and wide, an annual growth rate of around 4 inches (10 cm).

  • Gerd Krüssmann in Manual of Cultivated Conifers, describes it as, "dwarf form, globose when young, but becoming broadly conical with age, branches ascending and spreading, densely branched, annual growth 3 to 6 cm."
  • While the picture provided here shows a plant of medium density D.M. van Gelderen provides an excellent picture of a more characteristic form of this conifer in Conifers The Illustrated Encyclopedia.
  • "If you like your plants neat and tidy, here is a plant you'll treasure. When young, it is a tight, squat, conical form that looks as if it has been carefully sheared by an artist with a passion for geometry. It attains this perfection with no pruning whatsoever. As it grows upward, it becomes a neat, semi-dwarf, conical tree suitable for a small yard."
This cultivar originated as a seedling selected in the early 1800s by Th. Ohlendorff Nursery, Hamburg, Germany. The seed source was Nikita, Crimea, Russia.
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This picture was taken in 2000 during the ACS tour of the Harper Collection at Hidden Lake Gardens in Michigan. I will comment that generally this cultivar is of a more dense and even form than what is pictured.
Photo by Ken Church
Picea abies 'Ohlendorffii' in the Gotelli Collection of The U.S. National Arboretum, Washington, D.C., May 2006.
Photo by Dax Herbst

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