Abies concolor - 10 Seeds from South Africa - White Fir Tree or Shrub - Huge Range Combined Delivery

Abies concolor Seeds

White Fir

Abies is a genus of 48 to 56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Pinaceae. Abies concolor commonly known as White Fir is native to the western United States, through the Rocky Mountains from southern Idaho south through Utah and Colorado to New Mexico, Arizona and also Nevada. When mature it can reach a height of 20 to 25m or even a little more used in a garden or landscape situation a height of 12 to 15m is more usual. In any case the White Fir is fairly slow growing at 30 to 45cm per year even with good growing conditions so it takes quite a while to outgrow its position in a large garden. It has a pyramidal shape and horizontal branching with the lower branches drooping toward the ground and for the best visual result it should be grown in an open area so the lower branches can touch the ground. When branched to the ground the shade is sufficient to kill off the underlying grass.

The foliage is a wonderful blue-grey which appears much like that of the Colorado blue spruce. This makes it popular as an ornamental landscaping tree and as a Christmas tree. The foliage is also used in large quantities for Christmas wreaths and decorations owing to its soft needles and generally excellent needle retention and abundance. It is regarded as one of the most adaptable and less site exacting species of the fir genus and will withstand heat and drought better than most firs and can tolerate winter temperatures to -40°C. For germination the seeds require a period of moist pre-chilling also known as stratification before the seeds should be sown, this takes around 6 weeks in the fridge and is not difficult to do.