Picea rubens 'Pocono' / Red Spruce

Picea rubens 'Pocono' is a slow-growing, upright, irregular-growing selection of Red Spruce. The short, grayish-green needles are arranged radially along radically varying branching. The growth pattern is rather curious with stronger terminal branches growing rather normally, then later producing a cluster of buds which will produce only tight clumpy growth. After 10 years of growth, the gardener will have an odd clumpy tree, around 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide.

Layne Ziegenfuss of Leighton, Pennsylvania found the original plant growing in the wild in the Pocono Mountains of eastern Pennsylvania in 1966. This plant has been always relatively rare in the trade, but is well worth the hunt for someone looking for an unusual plant in the landscape or a cultivar that's underrepresented in the nursery trade,