Obrizok: 'Dwarf, flat-topped globe, tiny compressed dark green needles.
Picea orientalis 'Bergman's Gem' is one of the nicest dwarf forms of Caucasian spruce that is easily available in the nursery trade. Needles are rich dark green; stems and branching are arching and uniform, and growth is at a reasonably slow rate.
F.W. Bergman introduced this "gem" of a spruce though Kristick Nursery in Wellsville, Pennsylvania in 1980.
It's quite interesting to note that the growth rate of this cultivar can be quite variable dependent on where in the country it's growing. In the east and mid-west U.S., the annual growth rate is only a inch or two a year resulting in a very compact globose plant. In the northwest, the growth tends to be much faster creating more of an intermediate-growing specimen.
