Colorado Blue Spruce
(Picea pungens)

Type: narrow-leaved evergreen tree
Annual Growth Rate: less than 12 inches
Hardiness Zones: 3 (-40 to -30)
Height:30 - 60 ft
Spread: 15 - 20 ft
Form: Pyramidal
Culture: Colorado Spruce prefers rich, moist soil in full sunlight although is more drought tolerant than other Picea species; very adaptable
Landscape Value:  Popular as a specimen but hard to combine well with other plants; acceptable in dry climates; can me used in groupings; one of the standard practices in past years has been the use of this plant or a blur foliage type in the front yard where it immediately detracts from the rest of the landscape.
Diseases and Insects to watch for:  Subject to spruce gall aphid, adelges cooleyi, which causes tips of branches to die, spruce bedworm and spider mite, cytospora canker may infect lower branches, Phomopsis occulta caused branch dieback in some michigan nurseries

. Consider using bluish cultivars of Abies concolor (concolor fir)or Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas Fir) as a substitute.