Serbian spruce?

I’m thinking it is an Abies of some flavor. Maybe A procera with those hockey stick needles…just a guess.

tj

Thanks guys.

What I know about the Gymnosperms can easily be classed as Sweet Fanny Adams.

Spruce? Google pics don't look right.

All Abies I've ever seen, like the google pics of A. procera, had much shorter, more densely packed needles.

I've emailed the head gardener, who I have always found to be very helpful. Thanks Tom.

Fof

The needles look flatter rather than square, so more like a fir.

I swear somewhere on the east coast I've once seen a fir that vaguely resembled this...open and coarse, even stubby... and TBH...thinking "I can skip that one for sure". But my memory fails me. Could it have been as recent as my trip to Biltmore last summer? They had some large trees there of course, including firs, but overall I wasn't impressed as I've been with other gardens. A lot of them were not displayed to their best advantage and just made me think "meh". Unfortunately my brain focuses on remembering things I liked! (Unless they were huge disappointments compared to the expectation of the exotic. Like Keteeleria trees, which have been totally blah to me whether in North Carolina or California. Funnily I have not seen this post until a moment ago, but, my thoughts exactly! "...doesn’t have nearly the elegance of many of the firs or spruces " https://www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org/eat-a-little-keteleeria/ )

You were in the right area, tsugajunkie.

Tom, the head gardener, says it is Abies spectabilis