# How Fast Do "Weeping" Spruces Grow?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-do-weeping-spruces-grow/533640
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 24, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-do-weeping-spruces-grow/533640 "2010-03-24T17:14:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-do-weeping-spruces-grow/533640/1 "2010-03-24T17:14:34Z")
I ask because I planted one, four years ago, in my front yard. The thing hasn’t grown a bit-should I be fertilizing it more?
Otherwise, it looks pretty healthy.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-do-weeping-spruces-grow/533640/2 "2010-03-24T19:22:06Z")
Without knowing the exact type of spruce (there’s multiple species with a ‘Pendula’ variety), it’s hard to say but my copy of Michael Dirr’s Manual of Woody Landscape Plants (bible of the landscape industry) lists them all as “Rate: Slow” meaning 12" or less per year.
From my limited experience with them in garden centers and reading the tags, etc I’d agree that all the weeping forms of spruce are exceedingly slow growers. Exacerbated by the fact that growth from the branch ends is downward rather than upwards & outwards like a standard spruce tree.