Oriental spruce: Reliably Early, Reliabl...

The world is a crazy place, as evidenced by terrorism in Times Square and Thursday’s bomb scare in Portsmouth, NH. Hey, Portsmouth is practically my own backyard. In turbulent times, is there anything a peace-and-yoga-loving gardener like me can count on? Well, yes. Each spring, we can enjoy the bright yellow growth tips on Early Gold Oriental spruce (Picea orientalis ‘Early Gold’) a good two weeks earlier than those on the yellow-tipped cultivar ‘Aureospicata’. We grow ‘Early Gold’ in a sunny sloping bed on the west side of our...