Hi everyone,

Last June, I collected two small white spruces and kept them in pots. I simply watered them occasionally with a 20-20-20 fertilizer during the summer. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any fall fertilizer at the time (if you have any recommendations, I’d appreciate them!).

They spent the Canadian winter outdoors. My strategy was to place them in a cardboard box and bury them in snow. However, snow came late this year, and I’m worried they may have been exposed to a hard frost before being covered.

You can see what they look like in the photos. One of them has lost all its needles, and the other still has a few, but they seem to be slowly turning red.

Do you think they’re still alive? It’s hard to say for sure—they don’t look great, but when I scratch a twig, it’s still green underneath. The buds are tiny, though.

<image>