Dwarf blue spruce ‘Fat Albert’

* Common name: Dwarf blue spruce ‘Fat Albert’

* Botanical name: Picea pungens ‘Fat Albert’

* What it is: A needled evergreen that’s a down-sized, slow-growing version of the popular Colorado blue spruce tree. It has the same pyramidal form and stiff, powdery-blue needles as the “regular” blue spruce, but it grows to only a third of the size.

* Size: 10 to 12 feet tall and 7 to 8 feet wide in about 20 years. Will continue to grow slowly bigger or can be trimmed lightly once a year to keep it at the desired size.

* Where to use: Striking enough in form, texture and color to serve as a specimen at a house corner, porch corner or by any sunny door. Prefers full sun and well drained soil. No wet clay!

* Care: Keep damp the first season or two until the roots establish, then ‘Fat Albert’ is drought-tough. Fertilize with a spring scattering of acidifying, organic, granular fertilizer. Pruning not needed until the tree reaches the size you’ve given it. Then wait until the season’s new shoots have grown by late spring and trim off nearly all of that growth to maintain the size.

* Great partner: Ring with pink sun-loving perennials, such as purple coneflowers, pink gaura, or betony. Caryopteris, a shrub that flowers blue in late summer, is a good woody-plant partner that also loves sun.