A. F. Tigerstedt mentions the Meyer spruce (P. meyeri) in his book “Havupuut” (Conifers), published in 1921. He listed the various Chinese spruce species still missing from the Mustila collection and ended: “which may gradually, one by one, be obtained [for Mustila]”. In some cases, obtaining these species has taken longer than he might have expected: Meyer’s spruce was finally planted in the Arboretum in 1991.
Native to the northern provinces of China, Meyer spruce closely resembles the Chinese spruce (P. asperata), including the grey-blue needles. Meyer spruce does not suffer the same fungal infections as the North American blue (also called Colorado) spruce (P. pungens), so it has rapidly become popular as a landscape tree especially in those areas of the U.S.A which have wet summers. In Finland it has hardly been grown at all. At Mustila, Meyer spruce can be found at the southern edge of Alppiruusulaakso (Rhododendron Valley), where they have grown extremely slowly in dry poor soil but have suffered no winter damage at all.