Hello: I am hoping you can help me out with a problem I am having with my Blue Spruce Tree. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada and we have a HUGE Blue Spruce tree in the front yard, probably 45 feet high. A few years ago we cut off some of the bottom branches and painted the cut area, then we put mulch under the tree and all around it. We think the tree is dying now because it doesn't have the nice silver/blue color anymore, there is long hangy beard like moss hanging on some of the branches, the tips of the branches have green growth, but the inside is dead, dry and brittle. The bark on the tree can be easly pulled off and seams to be dry and brittle. I am surly hoping that this tree can be saved because its very beautiful when its healthy and it gives us lots of shade. Sure hoping you can help me out this this Please email me at kstaples@masterpromotions.ca Any advise or comments would be greatly appreciated Thanks Karen Staples
Hello Karen, It is hard to say why your tree seems to be suffering. None of the things that you mentioned are the cause of your trees decline, assuming a couple things: that you did not place the mulch in a thick layer up against the trunk of your tree and that you made proper pruning cuts on fairly small branches. By the way, it is not necessary, or recommended that you use paint on your pruning cuts. It seems that you have quite an old tree. Although Colorado blue spruce can live to 200+ years, I have read in several sources that they often begin to decline in the landscape after 40 to 60 years. Your tree may simply be declining due to old age. If this is the case , and again, it is difficult to say, there is little that you can do. Consider planting a tree close by that can take its place once your tree is gone. Raakel
