Picea engelmannii 'Heike' / Heike's Engelmann spruce

Picea engelmannii 'Heike' #67 is an irregularly globose miniature selection of Engelmann spruce with random clumpy branching, attractive dusty-Blue needles and prominent yellow-orange foliar buds. After 10 years of growth, a mature specimen will measure only 10 inches (25 cm) tall and wide, an annual growth rate of 1 inch (2.5 cm) or less.

This cultivar originated as a witch’s broom found during a joint broom hunting expedition on January 20, 2004 along the Mt Evans road in Colorado’s front range. Among those in attendance where Colorado’s Jerry Morris, Austria’s Franz Etzelstorfer, and Germany’s Jörg Kohout, three of the legends in the field of conifer collecting. Upon collection, it was given provisional name Picea engelmannii [#67] and later renamed in honor of Heike Kohout, who was married to Jörg at the time. Purists will list this plant as Picea engelmannii ‘Heike’ #67.