Do you know if it has been inside all fall until now? If so it will need some acclimation to the outside which is the best place for it.

tj

It was purchased from a florist in CA but I have no idea the sourcing or care of these trees. I can check with their customer service though.

your big city name location would help ..

what are the current might temps ...

this thing is fully able to handle very cold winters ... its jsut a matter of how we get it outside for you ... you probably cant just dump it out there and hope for the best ...

it is a dwarf... we can se it in last seasons growth .. which was 3 to 6 inches.. rather than the 2 or 3 feet of picea glauca ...

the proper name for it is picea glauca conica ... otherwise known as a dwarf alberta sprunce ... DAS ...

https://conifersociety.org/conifers/picea-glauca-conica/

one thing for sure.. it is not a long term houseplant as it is a tree ... and needs full sun ...

so tell us where you are.. and we will s end you on your way .... about half the US is z6.. so thats of little help ...

ken

Really needs to be outside.

In the ground.

Embothrium, are you saying it must be planted in the ground in order to survive? Aren't these excellent container specimens?

I do know it needs to eventually be outside, of course. That's why I posted! :-) I'm seeking guidance on if I should wait until spring to move it outside or if I should do it now. If now, what is the ideal way to transition it? I'm in NE Ohio where we have a foot of snow on the ground and temps last week were in the teens. It's not going to go in the ground any time soon. (It's getting lots of bright southern exposure currently at least.)

The dwarf Alberta spruce is probably the most common container-grown conifer in New England.

It won't survive indoors for any length of time. Just like tabletop or living Christmas trees, these should be indoors for the shortest time you can get away with. Indoor conditions are too hot, too dry and not enough light.

I'd be inclined to do a pot-in-pot storage for now. Place the current pot (not the ceramic and with proper drainage) inside a larger winterproof container and pack around the sides with soil or mulch (layer some on bottom as well). Then place outside in a protected location out of wind and keep as much snow cover around it as possible.

If it's been indoors for very long, you may need to ease into this gradually over a few days. But get it outside as soon as you can. Not eventually - ASAP!

this is a tree.. it is not a houseplant .. this is a common disposable .. key word there ... xmas gift ...

but understand.. though florists do sell houseplants.. which you might keep for a long time.. a vast majority of their business is cut flowers.. otherwise known as short term gifts ...

this is a tree.. it is not a houseplant .. this is a common disposible .. key word there ... xmas gift ...

your current temps are very similar to mine.. just above toledo in MI ... it is too late to put it outside ... and odds are ... it will be very hard to maintain it indoors.. thru the rest of winter ...

enjoy the heck out of it.. but do not have high hopes of it being a long term houseplant .. nor high hopes that you can string it along until you can get it outside in spring ...

if you do make it that far ... first move it to the garage ... and let it acclimate to temps ... and then fully outside to acclimate to light .. and be very careful about full OH sun in the heat of summer.. in that small pot ... it would probably best be planted in mother earth in early april ... if it makes it that long ..

ken

So, sounds like a gradual attempt at protected existence outdoors asap is the goal. Check! I've got a mostly wind-protected area on the deck where I can place it and it will still get sun. I've got a larger pot I can place it in too. We'll see if it survives! Thank you!

FWIW, got this reply from the florist: "I reached out to our product team for more information regarding your Alberta Spruce. I have been told they were in an outside greenhouse before being shipped. It is not believed they are the dwarf version of the tree but we are double checking with one of our growers to be sure."

I didn't think it looked like a dwarf alberta spruce

I would not put it in direct sun right away

ron

Thanks Ron. Lucky for the tree, living in the snow belt means it won't be exposed to direct sun again til April. :::sigh::: ;-)

In pot = much more prone to cold damage than in ground.

@embothrium, I do understand that but there is a foot of snow and the ground is frozen. What do you suggest as a solution?

Either way you won't want to be sticking it outside until it is warmer. With sticking it outside in a pot still being worse than planting it out. And with planting it out once there is a warm enough spell - and mulching well afterward - probably working out fine due to this being a cold climate type of plant. And the top not showing any sign of having come out of dormancy.

Conflicting recommendations. Yay. :‐|

One of the most cold hardy conifers available. There should be no issue with it surviving outside, even with midwinter weather conditions. A pot-in-pot configuration will provide added protection against any potential for root damage. And it sure as heck will not survive indoors until spring!!

Any version of it being in a pot will make it have to be mothered more than if it were in the ground.

The problem as I see it is it has had the natural process of hardening, midwinter hardiness and dehardening disrupted. While a plant is genetically able to withstand certain temperatures, that is gained as fall progresses and lost as the weather warms in the spring, peaking in midwinter. You have received a dormant spruce, likely partly or all the way through ii's dormancy period depending where it came from and has now been subjected to room temperature conditions for a while. We are heading in the coldest month or two of winter so to assume you can stick it outside now and it will take the temperatures is risk, but might be okay if there is an extended mild stretch before any arctic air.. And it's in a pot which does not look very big so it will freeze hard.

Best place would be someplace as cool as possible like a three season porch or an unused room with the vent closed or a garage that does not freeze.

"Conflicting recommendations. Yay. :‐|"

You'll get those, we'll have differing opinions on things. :-) I tend toward the gentle, and realize that the rules aren't as firm as stated. Plants adjust, and will flex for a year or two from the hard and fast rules before giving up the ghost.

Yeah, with the up-again-down-again-up-again-Finnigan conditions the thing has had, I'd be inclined to be gentle during this first winter. One winter of slightly odd conditions isn't going to kill it (and with planetary weather changes, it better get used to it now), particularly if you give it some winter conditions later on when winter isn't quite so killer.

In this case, I'd go with Pennlake and choose a cool to cold spot--a bright garage if you have one, a very cool outside closed porch, or the coldest indoor location I could find until February when the weather starts to make the first turn toward late winter and less brutal conditions (for me, that's mid-February).

If you can get better information as to exactly where in CA the nursery is, that will help (you'd know the exact weather the tree had), but really, that's not going to hurt it.

Then adjust it outside s-l-o-w-l-y and gently into something protected as well (that corner porch looks good, just pull it back into protection if the weather goes into deep freeze).

About the only thing that's going to insta-kill a spruce that young for one year is a full freeze of the roots.

Then, when spring is well and truly here, adjust it slowly to sunlight (it takes a week or two of slow moving into sun), plant it, keep it moist the first year, and enjoy. It should be fine and it'll adjust to the natural weather just fine.

Again top shows no sign of having "softened" under the indoor conditions. And is now outside with a much more vulnerable root situation than if it were planted in the ground. Where it should be well mulched anyway, could have a cold protection setup put around the top if it seemed needed at some point.

Just an update on this first day of Spring. It remained on the deck, double-potted. I would pull it into the garage when the temps dropped below mid-20s. Seems to have done just fine and has lots of growth!

It's supposed to be 60s/30s this week - no, we're not beyond a freeze by any means - so I'll probably move it into a large planter in a few days and place in the same spot, although it will get more filtered sun once the trees fill in. I wish I had a sunny spot in which to plant it eventually!

Thanks for the update! :-)

Sunny in the summer is fine, sunny in the winter/spring (with wind) is what gets them.

And FYI should the occasion arise where this is a possibility tops of container plants are the last to show signs of cold damage. Before then it is the newest roots just inside container walls that die, followed by older roots farther back. So the first step in evaluating a container specimen after cold exposure is slipping it out of the pot and looking at the roots.

Otherwise this variant was found growing wild in Alberta in the 1940s so it is certainly cold tolerant in general.

do no transplant a conifer that is currently budding out ... you dont want any of those new buds getting water stressed from messing with the roots .... at the wrong moment in time....

either wait until they harden off.. or do it in fall ...

and after repotting ... put it in full bright shade for at least a month ... to get the roots working.. before you put it in full sun ... thought this time of year.. the sun isnt all that intense.. better safe than sorry ...

and if going in the ground.. plant it in fall ... or when still dormant earlier in spring ...

ken

Thank you everyone! I will wait til fall to replant. Sounds like dappled sun to shade will be ideal for the summer.

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