Picea orientalis 'Barnes' / Barnes Caucasian spruce

Picea orientalis 'Barnes' is a slow growing dwarf, flattened globose selection of Caucasian spruce with uniformly radiating branches, and shiny, dark green needles that provide exceptional winter interest. Older plants will assume a broadly conical shape over time. After 10 years of growth, a mature specimen will measure 2 feet (60 cm) tall and 4 feet (1.3 m) wide, an annual growth rate of 4 inches (10 cm), more outward than up.

This cultivar originated as a witch’s broom, found on the Barnes Estate and Arboretum in Hopwood, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. This is an old cultivar that was never registered but was propagated and sold in commercial numbers for many years. Eventually, Layne Ziegenfuss of Hillside Gardens Nursery, Lehighton, Pennsylvania, introduced it to the nursery trade in the 1970s and registered by Richard A. Larson of the Dawes Arboretum, Newark, Ohio in 2011.

This cultivar was registered through the ACS Conifer Registration program and accepted by the International Conifer Registry at the Royal Horticultural Society.