Picea Glauca?

[Isondiel]

I've been eyeing this spruce for several months now at my local nursery. It was heavily discounted and I tried hard to tell myself I already have enough trees but eventually caved and got it. Problem is, it was only tagged as Picea Glauca with no more info and the nursery person I talked to didn't know more. It seems to have a graft mark so it might be a cultivar of white spruce but I'm not sure.

I've had no problem working with deciduous trees before but have killed most of the conifers I attempted so I really want to keep this guy healthy. Any tips for spruce would be welcome.
I also noticed it has a lot of fungus in the soil, but heard some conifers benefit from it. If it's a healthy kind, how do I repot without damaging the ecosystem that fungus and tree have going?

I'm located in pacific Northwest zone 9b.

 

[James W.]

As soon as the buds begin to plump up is generally accepted as the best time to repot a spruce. You can repot now if you have a place to protect it from freezing.
Does it need a repot?
If it is terribly root bound you can cut half of the rootball off the bottom, trim off circling roots and fluff out the sides a little and plant into a shallower container, a cut off pot or Anderson flat. After that it will need at least a year to recover before you think about next steps.

 

[jszg]

I'm not very familiar with spruce taxonomy, but it suggests Picea orientalis 'Skylander' more than P. glauca, especially as it is grafted. Orientalis has pretty tightly packed needles like this, and the yellow tone to the new shoots seems like one of the aurea varieties. In my experience, glauca has a bit longer needles.

I believe Leo said orientalis is a good species for bonsai- vigorous with tight foliage and willing to produce backbuds.

Spruces seem to be very fussy about when to work them, which always struck me as a little strange considering they are mostly alpine trees, not exactly a stable and friendly environment. Perhaps there's some secret in their culture that escapes me.

 

[Isondiel]

I'm not very familiar with spruce taxonomy, but it suggests Picea orientalis 'Skylander' more than P. glauca, especially as it is grafted. Orientalis has pretty tightly packed needles like this, and the yellow tone to the new shoots seems like one of the aurea varieties. In my experience, glauca has a bit longer needles.

I believe Leo said orientalis is a good species for bonsai- vigorous with tight foliage and willing to produce backbuds.

Spruces seem to be very fussy about when to work them, which always struck me as a little strange considering they are mostly alpine trees, not exactly a stable and friendly environment. Perhaps there's some secret in their culture that escapes me.

Thank you for the suggestion on the name. I had an inkling it was maybe mislabelled because when googling photos of picea glauca, I couldn't find anything that looked like the one I got. Most Picea Glauca cultivars I saw seemed to grow a lot more compact than this guy.
Picea Orientalis definitely looks more like it.