Picea glauca 'Sandy's Gold' is a fast-growing, relatively dense, upright tree form of White spruce. It has a brilliant creamy-yellow spring flush of new foliage that holds color for several weeks in the early spring before the needles turn green with lighter tips. Annual growth can be 1-2 feet (30-60 cm) a year, producing a 15 foot (4.5 meter) tall specimen in the landscape after 10 years. Its form and seasonal variability in color are reminiscent of Picea orientalis 'Early Gold.'
Bill Journeay discovered the original 'Sandy's Gold' in an old farm field near New Ross, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia ,Canada in 1999 and named it for his wife. It has been successfully grafted and is well established at Kingsbrae Gardens in St Andrews NB and several private gardens in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada. (See Conifer Quarterly Vol. 26 No. 2, Spring 2009).
Journeay registered this cultivar through the ACS Conifer Registration program in 2011 and it was accepted by the International Conifer Registry at the Royal Horticultural Society.
