Picea pungens 'Royal Blue' / Royal Blue Colorado spruce

Picea pungens 'Royal Blue' is a broad, symmetrically upright, robust selection of Colorado spruce with dense, uniform branching and intense, steel-Blue foliage which emerges silver in spring. The needles are highly ornamental and remain steel Blue throughout the winter. After 10 years of growth, a mature specimen will measure 10 feet (3 m) tall and 6 feet (2 m) wide, an annual growth rate of around 12 inches (30 cm).

This is a fairly obscure cultivar of unknown origin. It is though to have been first seen at Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum, Boston, Massachusetts in the late 1970s. To this day, it is virtually unknown except for specimens in a few large arboretums.