Picea omorika 'Pendula' / Weeping Serbian spruce

Picea omorika 'Pendula' is a named cultivar of Serbian spruce whose status is arguably questionable. Humphrey Welch and Gordon Haddow, in their 1993 book, The World Checklist of Conifers; as well as Gerd Krüssman's text from the same year, Manual of Cultivated Conifers, both forward the assertion that Picea omorika 'Pendula' is used as a name for a wide range of weeping Serbian spruces with many differing growth habits.

It appears now that a specific clone has been re-selected to carry this name — a narrow, upright, strictly weeping conifer with attractive Blue-green-silver foliage. After 10 years of growth, mature specimens will measure 10 feet (3 m) tall and 3 feet (1 m) wide, an annual growth rate of 12 inches (30 cm) or more.

It's impossible to know if this is the original selection and it's probably best if this collective of weeping spruces were relegated to "forma" status, i.e. Picea omorika f. pendula.

Keeping with historical perspective, German botanist, Fritz Kurt Alexander von Schwerin (1847–1925) first described this cultivar in 1920. It is thought to have originated somewhere in Europe.

Picea omorika 'Pendula' in the Harper Collection of Dwarf & Rare Conifers at Hidden Lake Gardens, Tipton, Michigan, August 2005. Notice this same plant is now 10 years older than the photo taken by Charlene Harris in 1995.
Photo by Dax Herbst
Picea omorika 'Pendula' — a young plant in a private garden in Kansas, October 2006.
Photo by David Stegmaier
Over the past 15 years the owner of this Picea omorika 'Pendula' has periodically topped the leader to force lateral growth and encourage it to merge with the Picea abies 'Formanek' on the right. Freeport, Maine, Fall, 2013.
Photo by Sean Callahan

Comments

Ibolja Levay

You call it Pančiceva OMORIKA his origin is from Serbia and it is not unknown.
It is known.
You can see them around Mountin Tara.
Just saw them.
Pančič was the first who discovered it and not a German botanitian.
You can not deny that.
Greetings from
Tara

Ethan Johnson

Correct! The tree in the picture is the species, Picea omorika, "discovered" and described first by Pančič. The cultivar 'Pendula' was first described by a German botanist.