South Dakota's state tree.

Reply to this comment

A couple of days ago, my husband and I were talking about September 11, 2001 and the fact that the twelfth anniversary is next Wednesday.

I told him that on that Tuesday morning twelve years ago, after I dropped him off at 8:15 am at the airport (he was an airline pilot with Comair until it closed last September), I went to Lowe's and bought 4 one-gallon pots of 'Black Hills' Spruce.

I planned to plant them along one side of our yard for privacy. Sometime that fall, I got all 4 planted -- 3 in the back yard and 1 in the front yard.

One of the trees died a year later, but that was o k with me, as I was going to be the one planting them and figured if I went small and cheap, that if one died, I wouldn't be out much.

As I looked at the 3 trees this September, twelve years later, I noticed one of them has several cones and is doing good, one is the tallest & widest of the three and doing great (also closest to the outside faucet) and the last one is on the small size, but growing. It's next to the one that is the tallest & widest, so that may be why it is stunted.

Reply to this comment

This Black Hills White Spruce is more dense growing than the regular species. It is slower growing of about 1/2 ft to 1 ft/year. Its native range is in southwest South Dakota and some of eastern Wyoming. In landscapes of the Midwest or farther east it usually gets about 30 to 40 feet high and usually about 10 to 15 feet wide. Don't get it confused with the Black Spruce which is a different species.

Reply to this comment