Dwarf alberta spruce are disease and pest-prone garbage, and only suitable for containers (short term). Get a pyramidal boxwood topiary, or a dwarf holly. There is nothing that can be done to help these DAS without making them look more deformed.

Two years seems like a very short amount of time. I have two dwarf Alberta spruce that I put in containers in spring of 2015 and they haven't grown much at all. Granted, I have a rather shady lot so that may have something to do with it. I have heard with trees that "in the first year they sleep, in the second year, they creep, in the third year, they leap" so it may still need a little time before it puts on some growth? I thought they were rather responsive to slight pruning. If the indentations do not go away, you could always continue the pruning with the indentations and have sets of it for the tree. But that may be a little more formal of a style than you are looking for.

This is the oldest of my P. glauca. This specific disease and pest-prone specimen is almost 30 yrs in the ground (29ish). You can see that it has suffered greatly from not being contained in a pot, and its currently languishing state is clearly long past its short life span.

Ok, in all seriousness: This tree gets nothing from me. I don't water it, I don't prune it (even though this thread now prompted me to look at it closer and I will probably clean up those wispy groupings at the bottom of the mass for aesthetics) and I don't protect it in winter. During the polar vortex winters a few years ago this entire visible side was killed off and browned and it completely filled in to as you see above.

I have other smaller ones that I prune to keep shape, as they will sometimes grow unevenly as yours has above. You can't prune in to far, or else you run the risk of creating bare spots that won't needle, but you can prune away the fresh growth until the bare areas catch up. If it were me, I might trim a bit of the right hand side upper side of the first one pictured, but I would likely leave the second one alone for now to see what happens in the coming years.

Dwarf Alberta spruce are no worse or no better than any other dwarf conifer. They can develop some reversion as they age, they won't tolerate much shade and they can be prone to spider mites but as indicated previously, that can be pretty easily addressed. Similar issues can be a problem with other plants as well :-))

It should be noted that the dwarf characteristic is relative.......with sufficient age, these can get quite large (debunking Logan's belief they won't last long). It is not uncommon to find mature specimens (40-50 y.o.) in my area that are 15' or more tall.

IME, shearing to keep a very uniform and even mini Christmas tree shape is best done while the plants are still relatively small. They do develop some lumpiness as they age and the shape becomes less uniform but that just provides some character. I have not tried it myself but routinely shearing periodically could encourage a more even appearance and reduce the lumpy tendency.

in tree time.. it will assume whatever shape its furry little self wants to ... and personally.. that is what will be cool about them ... individuality ...

without the ability to look inside your plant.. i have no clue why its doing this .. nor can i think up any way that cutting off pieces [pruning] would solve the problem ... just poke around in there .. and make sure there is nothing restricting them ...

otherwise.. imo.. leave them alone .. or.. in the alternative.. if they are really bugging you that much.. get rid of them ...

btw.. where are you... that they need winter wrapping???

ken

We are in zone 5b. They are facing southwest.

Generally agree with Mainegrower's post, except that zone 7 is pushing it...more like zone 6 and colder on the east coast. Though there are perhaps pockets of zone 7 where they are not as disease-prone, like Long Island. Locally in the DC/Balto area, I'd say nurseries push them far less than they used to. You can still find them though.

Interesting the disparity in climate adaptation for this plant from one side of the country to the other :-) DAS is perfectly happy in my z 8/9 climate as witnessed by the many long term, mature specimens around but then we do tend to have quite cool summers and very low humidity. Which they must prefer.

Right well whenever I post about "zone 7" without additional qualifiers, I'm talking about the mid-Atlantic. As I assume when you and embo talk about zone 8, you ain't talkin' about Mobile, Alabama!

Unfortunately, as with blue spruce - in the mid-Atlantic - this is a plant that most serious nurserypersons know is going to have trouble, but they can't resist selling it to you if you are misguided enough to want one. At least, in my jaundiced point of view, having a little 3 foot tall, diseased and struggling blob, is not as much an aesthetic imposition as a 25' diseased, prickly conifer. And as with blue spruces, they can look good for some years before the inevitable decline. Siting can make a big difference. A relative of mine is in a super-upscale suburb of Philly. A guy from Colorado is near the stream valley with rich bottomland soil and keeps having blue spruces die quickly on him. At the other end of neighborhood lane, only 1/2 mile away, is a house on a calcareous ridge. All the blue spruces someone planted as a screen up there, are doing fine...for now.

There are huge specimens of das at Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle. Quite majestic. The only issue with them is that no one cut out the reversions when they occurred and the resulting effect is unattractive.

I love my Dwarf Alberta Spruce. It's three years old. I've not had to shear it yet. The only thing I do is jet spray it with water from top to bottom about twice a week in the summer months to keep the spider mites away.

Yes, they have the look as though a middleman along the way has tied them with rope to contain them, even though they didn't need containing. Conifers with out of control branches that would otherwise request more space during transport are ones that might need tying, but not these.

Probably my least favorite conifer ever. ugly looking, painful to rub against, tacky as all hell, and you cant really prune them since it only grows green an inch deep. Why do people like these things?

I don’t think I ever agreed with Logan (r.i.p.) but have to say I do here.