Abies procera (Noble Fir)

This is a western North American fir, native to the Cascade Range and Coast Range mountains of extreme northwest California and Western Oregon and Washington in the United States. It was first found by fabled botanist-explorer David Douglas, growing in mountains on the north side of the Columbia River Gorge, where it can still be found.

The tree was introduced into Britain in 1830 and is a native of Oregan and Washington in the USA. It is capable of growing very tall.

The wood from these trees is used in construction and paper manufacture. It is thought to be the largest of all Abies in terms of diameter, height and wood volume. 

A tall evergreen conifer that is conical in shape and has a trunk up to 2m in diameter. The bark is grey and smooth with resin blisters when young which gets rougher and fissured turning to a red/brown colour with age. Twigs are reddish brown with blue/green needles 1-3.5cm long cover the banches pointing upwards and forwards .  It produces 11-22cm erect cones which have purple scales covered by yellow/green bract scales. The cones go chocolate brown when ripe and release winged seeds in autumn (Oct).

Grows best in moist, free draining, fertile soil in full sun. It will survive in dry conditions but much prefers cooler climates. Growth is slower in dense shade.  It is happy in windy sites because it is one of the most windfirm trees, swaying grandly in even the most howling gales of winter.

Abies procera as a Christmas tree

The tree looks very dense due mainly to 25mm long blue-grey needles growing at right angles to the branch. Trees are relatively easy to decorate as the needles are pretty flexible however, if you put heavy baubles on, the branches can show signs of drooping.

The tree does drop it's needles but only moderately.