Can someone please guide me with prunning my very large blue spruce? Its not so much the height but the width. It's now growing out of its circle and I don't really wanna make the circle bigger and I don't want to cut it down because I like the blue spruce with the purple maple tree. I just need it to be skinnier. Posting 2 photos. Older Google maps photo and a recent one. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you Jessie
Even in a cultivated setting Blue Colorado spruce grows over 100 ft. tall with a proportionate width in suitably continental climates. You will not be able to halt the sideways expansion of yours. You could however slow the rate of increase by shortening the new shoots of the current year each late spring-early summer. Picea pungens (blue spruce) description (conifers.org)
You can as Ron says, shear it to reduce the rate of growth. This will affect the appearance, though, make it look un-natural like a sheared christmas tree, rather than the natural branch shape. Personally, I'd not prune it at all, just accept that it will steadily get larger. Older trees do become more columnar with age, though - the increase in width of the lower crown does slow down a lot with age.
Michael, Can I then just trim the bottom some? Not like the evergreens that have no bottoms. Just cut it back like a foot or so so that it inside the circle? Took more photos. Don't mind the weeds. We just had a baby and the whole yard is a work in progress. Thank you.
Make the circle bigger instead of trying to alter the tree - there is plenty of room around the tree for it to continue growing wider.
