Flowers provide a temporary splash of colour in the garden, but foliage plants will give you colour all year round. There are many beautiful conifers which have blue foliage, including some dwarf varieties. They create a stunning and very classy look in the garden, and they grow particularly well in the cooler parts of Australia. Here is Don’s selection of some of the best blue foliaged conifers available.
Blue Atlas Cedar (sold as Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca’)
Popular for ornamental planting in large parks and gardens, Cedrus atlantica is native to the Atlas Mountains of Algeria and Morocco. C. atlantica ‘Glauca’ is a lovely cultivar with rich, waxy blue leaves all year round. Like the species, it is a very big plant, growing to 20m (60′) or more. It is very hardy in most zones of Australia except for tropical and subtropical regions.
Cedrus deodara ‘Blue Snake’
‘Blue Snake’ is a blue creeping dwarf Himalayan cedar which grows less than 2m (6′) high. It has bluish-green weeping foliage, and can be staked for a pendulous form.
Cupressus glabra ‘Blue Ice’
Don thinks ‘Blue Ice’ is close to the best blue coloured conifer ever. It has silvery blue foliage and is a wind-hardy, drought tolerant, slow growing conical tree to 10m (30′) plus. Although it does grow tall, it can be trimmed into a hedge and kept to a smaller size. It is at its best in Sydney, Perth and areas south.
Juniperus scopulorum ‘Blue Arrow’
This is one of the new wave of exciting new blue conifers. ‘Blue Arrow’ is narrow like a pencil pine but it only grows to around 5m (15′) tall.
Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Carpet’
This is a prostrate plant growing less than a metre tall, with blue foliage which changes to a bronze purple colour in winter.
Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’
Don looked at a grafted specimen, but normally ‘Blue Star’ is a groundcover growing about 75cm tall and 1m (3′) wide. It has silvery blue, short spiky branchlets forming a globe-shaped bush.
Picea pungens ‘Fat Albert’
While not really a true dwarf blue spruce, ‘Fat Albert’ is very slow growing. It will only reach about 2m (6′) tall in ten years, but it eventually grows into a full-sized blue spruce. ‘Fat Albert’ is best suited to the cold areas of Australia.
Pinus strobus ‘Minima’
‘Minima’ is one of a number of miniature clones of Pinus strobus, a North American native growing to around 35m (100′) tall, with blue green foliage in clusters at the end of whorled, horizontal branches.
Don’s choice
For a low growing, dense plant, Don likes Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’. He is sure another juniper, ‘Blue Arrow’, will become very popular for narrow areas, and for a large conifer, he thinks you can’t go past the hardy cedar, ‘Blue Ice’. Don also pointed out that there are some blue foliaged conifers that don’t perform well, such as Alligator Juniper (Juniperus deppeana var. pachyphlaea ‘Conspicua’).
Further information
Our segment was filmed at:
Conifer Gardens Nursery
Cnr Sherbrooke and Mt Dandenong Tourist Rds
Ferny Creek, VIC, 3786
Phone: (03) 9755 1793
Fax: (03) 9755 2677
(They stock all of the varieties mentioned above).
Blue foliaged conifers are available at specialist cool climate tree and conifer nurseries. Some varieties may be hard to find – ask your nursery to order them for you.
Expect to pay around $20-$25 for 200mm (8″) pots (more for grafted specimens). Slow growing forms such as ‘Blue Snake’, ‘Fat Albert’ or ‘Minima’ cost around $30-$45.
