Sunday, March 30, 2014

Sitka Spruce



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.





Impressed, I decided to plant more, thinking these few were the only survivors from the original planting. I tried to keep the berries away for the first few years, but mostly did not succeed.




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.





3 comments:

  1. Haha,

    What a nice thing. I live in NL and over here the sitka's are in fact protected by the very same shrubs. If they are on their own almost all are continuously browsed by the numerous deer here. Many die. But not in the part with the very same bushes. And boy do they grow over here (Western Hemlock too btw). Just yesterday I visisted the forest again to see what the summer brought. Well it was warm and drie at the start but rainy from mid july to well into september. For us, getting 20 inches over that period is a lot. The forest looked fantstic, even the sanddunes where moist en full with moss and ferns. And yes, the sitka spruces I pictured (youngsters) did very well. When not browsed they went from 1 meter to well over 2 meter and now they are bigger than me. They look superb, needles like daggers, there stem thick. Some hemlock which strangly seem to do better than sitka in really dry soil, also went from being 10 cm or so to well over a meter. F|rom 20 cm in diamter to more than 1 meter....Love 'em.

    And yes: many sitka's grow out of the blackberries and indeed once they overcome them they are growing very fast. In a few years these will become the big sentinels of the forest.

    Hope to see more on the progression of your spruces the following years!

    One advice: really beautiful and tough species are Norway and Serbian spruce. Also Lutz Spruce. But the first two look magnificent I think. May be they can grow where you live too (don't know where you live though).

    Greetings from The NEtherlands,

    Gov

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    Replies
    1. I had no idea Sitka Spruce grew in the Netherlands! Or Western Hemlock, either. We have lots of those, too, here in Western Oregon. Hemlock are native here. Norway and Serbian Spruce are not but I did plant a couple Serbian Spruce and have been amazed this year at how well they did in spite of our long drought. You must be getting all the rain! Thanks for the comment and the info on spruces. I love hearing about trees and hearing from others who appreciate them.

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    2. Gov from the Netherlands... just wanted to let you know I planted more Sitkas this week and posted about them and the earlier plantings. Photos on that post but not very good of the older sitkas. I'll try for better photos soon.

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