Picea abies 'Skyhigh WB' / Skyhigh WB Norway spruce

Picea abies 'Skyhigh WB' is a very slow growing, miniature, globose selection of Norway spruce with dense, clumpy, uniform branching and attractive, blue-green foliage. A bright, yellow-green second push of needles in late summer creates a pleasing sparkling effect. After 10 years of growth, a mature specimen will measure less than 12 inches (30 cm) tall, an annual growth rate of 1 inch (2.5 cm) or less.

This cultivar originated as a witch's broom found in the late 1980s growing in the Moline Riverside Cemetery in Moline, Illinois. It was first discovered by Ken Brooks of Rock Island, IL. He named it 'Skyhigh' because the broom appeared at the very top of an 80-foot tree and collecting scion wood required a lot of effort. The broom was growing so tightly that it was very difficult to get scion wood for grafting. It took about three years of collecting and grafting before a successful graft was done by Randy Dykstra of Fulton, Illinois. The current plant in the Heartland Collection of Garden Conifers at the Bickelhaupt Arboretum, Clinton, Iowa was 20 years of age in 2016.