Yep, no question: Serbian spruce, Picea omorika.

If the rabbits made a complete circle of chewing around the stem it's likely it will never recover.

Dax

see link ...

get rid of it [unless you have an acre out back to move it to] ... its at least 15 feet to close to the house.. and the same for the driveway ... though it is properly sited in relation to the neighbors house.. lol ..

i suppose you can design around it.. with the understanding ... that sooner or later it will have to go ... so that your new stuff will be maturing.. when this need be removed ...

we dont see the rest of the project ... so its hard to opine much further ...

to me.. it look like a bigboxstore plant ... sited improperly.. with no concept of the potential it really has ... it was spaced for the size it was.. at the time of purchase ... a common error in suburbia ...

ken ... devils advocate

https://www.google.com/search?q=Picea+omorika&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjHnczy0rHMAhUHNSYKHTKLBcgQ_AUIBygB&biw=935&bih=745&dpr=0.9#imgrc=_

As we can see in your closeup pictures of the conifer in question, unlike Norway spruce Serbian spruce has flat needles. Although often comparatively quite narrow it is still a full height tree that will overwhelm that space in time, both vertically and horizontally. It is young enough that theoretically the branches above the damage will sag down into at least a portion of the now bare zone over time - if further damage is prevented. It will not sprout new branches on the trunk.

Aim for a replacement about 1 1/2 times as high as the bed is wide at the point of planting. So if the bed is 5' deep that would be a shrub that "matures" at ~7 1/2' - and not a tree that grows multiple times that height.

It is true that if the building is of some height it would take a tree of some size to look in scale with it. But if there is no available planting space of sufficient width to house such a specimen then it cannot be helped.

Serbian spruce has flat needles? Man so much for the spruce has square, and fir has flat needle theory I had..

Serbian spruce are a favorite of rabbits. I use 2"X3" vinyl coated fencing around mine in the winter. Disappears to the eye so not hideous looking.

@jalcon- Spruce= square, fir=flat does not work for all spruces.

tj

Thanks for the information - loved the red cones with my tudor home but
definitely no space for it in our front or back yard. Too bad... :-(

I see there are some red cone drawf varieties like this one (http://shop.monrovia.com/pusch-dwarf-norway-spruce.htmlwhich it says will grow in my zone 4a but isn't sold here?) - others I should consider replacing it with?

I found it on nursery site near us - http://plants.bachmanslandscaping.com/12070012/Plant/16885/Acrocona_Pusch_Spruce - says "high maintenance" - any more than a globe blue spruce? (http://plants.bachmanslandscaping.com/12070012/Plant/1066/Dwarf_Globe_Blue_Spruce) We had plans to put the dwarf globe blue spruce on both sides of our steps but perhaps the acrocona pusch spruce would be a better choice (we are trying to have pops of red in our front yard all year so this would be a little in the spring...).

If the front of the building where the steps are is - like the house(?) across the alley, for instance - not geometrically uniform then matching pairs of plants flanking the steps will not be consistent with the design of the architecture. Instead differing combinations of plants of equal total mass should be used, for instance on larger plant of one kind on one side and a dwarf plant and a medium plant on the other - each one a different kind.

'Pusch' hard to maintain, no. It's a shrub. The red cones don't provide color for very long. Less than a week I suppose. A good-looking plant for you is Thuja occidentalis 'Congabe' aka 'Fire Chief'. There's your red color all season long in an evergreen form.

Dax