Blue Shag Pine Brings Soft Year-Round Texture to the Garden

Virtues: We love Pinus strobus ‘Blue Shag’ for its lustrous, dense foliage that creates a spectacular, “shaggy” display of beautiful blue-green bundles of short needles, soft to the touch.

Common name: Dwarf Eastern white pine, Blue Shag white pine, Blue Shag pine

Botanical name:Pinus strobus ‘Blue Shag’

Flowers: Insignificant.

Foliage: Clusters of 5 soft, blue-green pine needles fill the grey stems to form a striking compact habit, perfect for mass planting for rich, dense color or added to rock gardens for a year-round presence.

Habit: This eye-catching dwarf shrub dusted with a tinge of blue has a mounded habit reaching 2 to 4 ft high, with a similar spread. Eastern white pine’s lovely foliage will typically fill out down to the ground.

Season: With stunning, lush, colorful foliage, Pinus strobus ‘Blue Shag’ has year-round interest.

Origin: Cultivar of a species native to the East Coast of North America.

How to grow Pinus strobus ‘Blue Shag’: Blue Shags will grow in most average, well-drained soils; however they do not tolerate alkaline conditions well and are most successful in fertile soils with regular watering. They should not be planted in highly polluted areas, as they are intolerant of pollution. These attractive shrubs can grow in either full sun or part shade, but they prosper when planted in full sun. USDA Zones 3–8.

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