Oriental spruce

* Common name: Oriental spruce

* Botanical name: Picea orientalis

* What it is: A tall, upright, graceful evergreen tree with short and fairly soft needles of medium green. Habit is gently arching. The small flowers are red, which makes this evergreen unusually colorful for a few weeks in spring.

* Size: 50 to 60 feet tall, 20 to 25 feet wide.

* Where to use: Nice enough as a specimen evergreen for a property corner but also useful in groups as a sunny screen planting (if you have 20 feet or so of border space to work with). Best in full sun.

* Care: Improve soil with compost before planting and keep soil consistently damp (never soggy) for first full year. An annual spring scattering of Holly-tone or similar acidifying organic fertilizer is helpful. Pruning not needed if you give it proper space.

* Great partner: Ring with bright gold or red perennials, such as black-eyed susans, gaillardia, coreopsis, mums and/or daylilies.