Sitka Spruce are survivors. I planted several an unremembered number of years ago... maybe five or seven or ten years ago... down in a soggy part of our woodland. I wanted to recreate a temperate rainforest. The Sitkas were planted at the edge of a lowland area rimmed by Himalaya blackberries and miscellaneous bushes and trees. The blackberries soon overcame the tiny seedling trees. The blackberries were too much for me to battle with, so I gave the Sitkas up for lost.
Several years ago, I noticed some lovely tall evergreen trees rising out of the blackberries. Once above the height of the blackberry bushes, they had shot upward.
Again the baby trees were buried in berries. But then, one winter when the leaves were off the bushes, I noticed an orange flag in the berries, attached to a leaning bamboo stake. And poking up was a Sitka Spruce! I chopped away the blackberry bushes to help it out. Once freed, it grew quickly.
Every year, it seems, another long lost spruce finds its way above the berry bushes. You can tell by the leader that it has grown this way and that looking for light.
Today, (March 2014), I was down in the woods photographing wildflowers when I noticed an orange flag way in the middle of the blackberry patch. Could it be?? Yes, near the orange flag was a barely visible spruce tree that had fought its way to daylight. The orange flag, attached to a leaning bamboo stake, is just left of center in the photo below.
In the following photo, the top of the spruce is right of center.
And here it comes!
This one is way too far into the blackberries for me to help. But if it's made it this far, it will make it the rest of the way. And once it is clear, it will soar above those bushes and shade them out as this survivor has done. Look at the leader to see how much it grew in one year!
Over two feet!
And here, in 2020, is that just-appearing-out-of-blackberries-in-2014-Sitka in 2020, 6 years later and 6 feet taller... It will take off now!
Look out blackberry bushes, alders, grand fir and doug firs, here come the Sitkas! Armed with strong, razor-sharp needles, nothing will stand in their way.
