Has anyone ever seen anything like this???

How do you explain this....

 

MY neigbor has that exact thing happen to her alberta spruce.

How???? Didn't trim it for years....

 

well would you trim an alberta spruce anyway? I sure never have heard of that.... I see that the other one is a double tree. And the freak show there, hey, that's just "special"! Crazy that a spruce would grow all the way to the top like that. Looks like the nursery that grew them originally just was keeping that spruce sheared off and hoped to pass it off...

 

That is a grafted plant. The part showing up on top is actually growing from below the graft. Many grafted plants get growth from below the graft. Trace it back down through the tree and cut it off.

 

Someone at the nursery was bored. Do as AGLA said, and prune it off at the graft point.

 

No. The dwarf part is what was attached, not the funky part. These are propagated by cuttings and by grafting. This one was obviosly grafeted. I have seen this many times on dwarf alberta spruce.

 

We do...not everyyear but they need touchups every once in awhile to keep their nice 'christmass' tree shape.

 

AGLA - Do you think it could be a reversion?

I've seen a ton of "spruces" revert to the original species (Norway)

Chris

 

Try this MSU link to a "Landscape Alert." There's a picture that almost looks like the one you posted. Follow the "Back to Article" link at the bottom of the picture and it'll tell you about pruning it out.

http://www.ipm.msu.edu/CAT05_land/L05-20-05revert.htm

 

That answers that question. These are grafted sometimes.