Florida enjoys a subtropical clime with mild winters and long , red-hot and sultry summers . This climate , along with soil weather , makes grow plants aboriginal to cool temperate clime hard at best . The dispirited spruce(Picea pungens ) must stand a extended winter quiescency with temperatures below freezing . It also must have a summer growing time of year that ’s not too hot — both in melodic phrase and soil temperature . spicy spruce trees do not get well for more than a year in Florida .

Incompatible Temperatures

racy spruce Tree thrive in a clime that ’s humid but much cooler than Florida ’s . The tree diagram need winter temperatures to drop at least into the 12- to 15 - grade Fahrenheit range . In summer , average temperatures around 70 degree further the skilful growth and plant health . In its aboriginal reach across the Rocky Mountains , blue spruce trees endure a frost - free summer that lasts about two calendar month . Across Florida , both winter and summertime temperature far transcend the optimal rude thresholds for blue spruces .

Hardiness

gloomy spruce trees grow in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 2 through 7 . Florida lies in zone 8b through 11 . harmonize to the American Horticultural Society ’s heating system zone function designation , blue spruce tolerates no more than 90 solar day of summer temperatures that outperform 86 degrees . This correlate to heat geographical zone 1 through 7 . Florida summers provide no less than 120 daytime of temperatures over 86 grade , in heat zones 9 through 12 .

Short-Term Cultivation

A seedling blue spruce , or dwarf variety of blue spruce , may live for a year in Florida , but it then becomes stressed from lack of wintertime cold and excessive heat and humidness . Decreased vigour and the attack of various disease and plague at last wipe out a spruce tree sabotage by poor environmental condition . If the spruce is brought to Florida in fall , it will take care o.k. through the coolheaded but mild winter calendar month , but finally go by the end of summer . keep the plant out of the live summer sun may improve its appearance temporarily .

Alternatives

Florida gardeners who enjoy the blue spruce ’s cone-shaped silhouette or blue - green foliage could plant other species that may endure longer in their mood . According to Michael Dirr , notable woody industrial plant expert from the University of Georgia , the momi fir ( Abies firma ) is a potential good relief only in North Florida . In the rest of the state , low foliage from Arizona cypress tree ( Cupressus glabra ) cultivar may be attractive for up to five year , eventually dying from summertime humidity . The coarse China - fir ( Cunninghamia lanceolata ) provides a blue - putting surface , prickly phonograph needle similar to the blue spruce . Grow this Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree no far to the south than Orlando .

References

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