The Blue Cloak White Fir, otherwise known as the Abies Concolor ‘Blue Cloak’ or White Fir ‘Archer’s Dwarf’, Archer’s Dwarf White Fir, is a rather well known tree plant by gardening enthusiasts around the world.
Best known for its low maintenance and slow growth, this tree will likely liven up your house (or garden) with its silver-blue colored leaves. But, only if you learn how to take proper care of it for it to thrive.
Fortunately, this is exactly what we’ll cover in this Blue Cloak White Fir Care Guide. So let’s dive in.
The fundamental caring guidelines for every Blue Cloak White Fir can be summed up into the following:
- Water: The Blue Cloak White Fir needs soil that is constantly moist through regular watering.
- Light: Keep your Abies Concolor ‘Blue Cloak’ in an environment where it can receive full sun on a daily basis.
- Soil: Make sure to keep the Blue Cloak White Fir in soil with moist but well-draining properties, so ideally, one that is made of sand, loam, and clay.
And that’s practically it! If you keep these three factors in check, your Blue Cloak White Fir will likely have all it needs for it to survive and even thrive.
Scientific / Botanical Aspects
In botanical terms, the Blue Cloak White Fir belongs to the Pinaceae family, the genus Abies and the species Concolor, hence its scientific (or botanical) name Abies Concolor ‘Blue Cloak’ (A-beez KON-kol-or).
Other popular Pinaceae plants include other species like Alberta Spruce ‘Echiniformis’, Deodar Cedar ‘Aurea’, Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar, Weymouth Pine ‘Blue Shag’, Black Pine, Dwarf Balsam Fir, Dwarf Pine’, Pieris Japonica ‘Purity’, Pinus Mugo ‘Sherwood Compact’, Shore Pine, Subalpine Fir ‘Green Globe’, Pieris Japonica ‘Fire N Ice’ Plant Patent #19994, Alpin Star Korean Fir, Weeping Japanese Larch, Serbian Spruce ‘Aurea’, Red Cone Norway Spruce, Swamp Spruce ‘Nana’, Pinus Flexilis ‘Vanderwolf’S Pyramid’, North American White Pine ‘Nana’, Baltic Redwood ‘Glauca’, Blue Spruce ‘Bialobok’, Corsican Pine, Loblolly Pine, Pinus Mugo ‘Mops’, Picea Abies ‘Nidiformis’ and Picea Abies ‘Pumila’.
As with other Abies’s, the Blue Cloak White Fir is an evergreen plant, which means it will be present year round in your garden.
Growing Region
The Blue Cloak White Fir is a plant native to Western North America.
Knowing your plant’s native region is very useful, as it can give you tips on which environment is best for your Blue Cloak White Fir. If you keep it in mind, you can try to replicate these conditions at home, and you’ll likely end with a healthier plant.
With this in mind, the Abies Concolor ‘Blue Cloak’ will be most used to the heat zones in the 1 – 7 region, as the plant hardiness level falls between 3a, 3b, 4b, 4a, 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, 7b, 7a and the ideal climate zone is between 2, 2A, 2B, 3, 3A, 3B, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, A2, A3.
Growth and Size
Growth
In terms of size and growth, the Blue Cloak White Fir is a relatively slow grower, which makes things easy for any plant enthusiast.
Size
But, what size of Blue Cloak White Fir are we talking about? What can you expect in terms of height, spread and spacing? Let’s dig in…
The Abies Concolor ‘Blue Cloak’ can grow up to 3′ – 6′ (90cm – 180cm) in 3′ – 6′ (90cm – 180cm) and 2′ – 3′ (60cm – 90cm) in 2′ – 3′ (60cm – 90cm).
These dimensions make the Blue Cloak White Fir a relatively medium tree compared to others, so it’s best to keep this fact in mind since it will affect where you want to keep yours at home.
Also, expect it to grow in a wonderful pyramidal shape, which is something worthwhile to remember when making your garden landscape plans.
This is why experts recommend keeping an area of approximately 40″ (100cm) free so the Blue Cloak White Fir can spread to its best extent.
Water
In terms of watering, the Blue Cloak White Fir is a fairly complicated plant to take care of.
This is mostly because it has a not so straightforward watering schedule and somewhat regular watering needs.
Specifically, most experts agree that the Abies Concolor ‘Blue Cloak’ needs soil that is constantly moist through regular watering.
Which is why it is considered a plant with relatively average needs in terms of water.
Watering
As a rule of thumb, you should remember to keep your Blue Cloak White Fir in soil with moist but well-draining characteristics, as these will guarantee the right conditions for your plant to grow and thrive.
When you consider this, this is why you should aim to choose soil that has good drainage, and moist properties to keep the right moisture levels at all times.
But, if you want a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to watering your Blue Cloak White Fir then you should consider the famous ‘finger’ test. To perform this test, you just need to put your finger in your plant’s soil and determine if it’s moist or not. If it is, then don’t water; if it isn’t, then please do. In any case, this test will allow you to know if your Blue Cloak White Fir needs or does not need water, every time.
Soil Mix
As mentioned earlier, the Blue Cloak White Fir prefers to have soil with good drainage, and moist properties at all times, reason why you need to make the soil mix out of sand, loam, and clay.
This is why most experts agree that the Blue Cloak White Fir requires soil with loam (silt), and sand, which will give you the right conditions it needs.
In addition to this, expert gardeners recommend having preferably neutral to acid soil.
Light and Exposure
In terms of light & exposure, the Blue Cloak White Fir requires full sun in order for it to thrive under the right conditions.
Most experts agree that this tree will do well as long as you keep it in partial to full sun, and it will be able to grow properly.
Specifically, we recommend that you place your Abies Concolor ‘Blue Cloak’ in from dappled or moderate shade (under other plant’s canopy), to full and direct sun (more than 6 hours of direct sunlight per day).
Season
Being an evergreen plant, the Blue Cloak White Fir will be present year round in your garden.
But, you can expect it to have its ‘prime-time’ during the spring (early, mid, late), the summer (early, mid, late), the fall, and during the winter.
Flowers
The Blue Cloak White Fir produces some wonderful purple/lavender and red/burgundy flowers around this time of year.
Foliage
The leaves from the Blue Cloak White Fir have a beautiful silver-blue color during most of the year.
In particular, they have a needles arrangement in its leaves.
You can expect the leaves from your Abies Concolor ‘Blue Cloak’ to be around (1-3 inches) in size.
Attracts, Tolerance and Resistance
The Blue Cloak White Fir is well known for its tolerance to drought and animals like deer, so don’t worry if any of these come along, your Abies Concolor ‘Blue Cloak’ will be fine.
Garden
Now, let’s talk garden and how your Blue Cloak White Fir will look best in it.
Most Abies Concolor ‘Blue Cloak’ owners agree that this tree will look great in most rustic gardens of all types.
Other owners consider that they complement well most gardens of informal and cottage, city and courtyard, gravel and rock garden, and in traditional garden styles.
In particular, the Blue Cloak White Fir’s best location within your garden is in beds and borders, and in patio and containers, others use it for landscaping in a specimen, privacy screen, rock garden, or a woodland garden.
Conclusion
So that’s it! These are the main plant care requirements that you need to keep in mind in order to have a healthy Blue Cloak White Fir in your garden or home.
