Tag: thuja occidentalis

Is it considered “peeping” if…?

Published on by edremsrola2 Comments

You may have seen on the news that we are experiencing record high temperatures throughout the Pacific Northwest. With hotter temperatures, people tend to wear fewer clothes; which from my perspective can have both its ups and downs.

Take this morning for example. I get up at 5:45am and the outdoor temperature is 71 degrees F. So, I open the house up, and take my bowl of blueberries and melon out on the front porch to enjoy the early morning garden while the temperature is most comfortable. I hear some kind of racket going on next door, the neighbor’s dog begins to bark aggressively and then a naked man flops over the short fence and runs through my front yard. As I was processing that sight, here comes the neighbor’s dog rounding the fence near the road with what appeared to be the man’s pajama bottoms in his mouth.

Not sure what I should do about all this activity, my mind immediately went to what conifers I should consider planting along that short fence to prevent this sight from occurring in the future.

Thuja occidentalis 'Golden Globe'
Thuja occidentalis 'Golden Globe'

Now, I like my neighbors quite a lot; in fact we are good friends, so I really don’t want to plant anything that will get huge or require a lot of shearing to maintain. My first thought is something with very long and sharp needles (to defend against unwanted fence hopping). Then again, I don’t want to be mean, and I am sure there must have been some kind of rational explanation for the activity I just witnessed.

Thuja occidentalis Mr. Bowling Ball
Thuja occidentalis "Mr. Bowling Ball"

I decide on a mix of dwarf cultivars of Thuja occidentalis. They will grow slowly enough not to take over the entire border between our two homes and will add nice color and a soft texture to the hedge.

A few great dwarf and intermediate cultivars of Thuja occidentalis that I will consider are:

  • ‘Hetz Midget’ – a good green globe-shaped mounding plant.
  • ‘Golden Globe’ – great color and very tidy globe-shaped habit.
  • ‘Sherwood Frost’ – makes a fine textured narrow pyramid with nice creamy variegated foliage.
  • ‘Bobazam’ (“Mr. Bowling Ball®”) – is a fun, small, ball-shaped, fine textured green mound.
  • ‘Yellow Ribbon’ – although it will grow large, one or three of these placed along the hedge row will add impact with their contrasting color and size.

Of course there are others to consider as well. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of designing the hedge to creatively incorporate all these different shapes, sizes and textures to make my new hedge not only functional, but a showpiece as well.

Now, the rest of the story.

As it turns out, the man was fleeing the home on the other side of my neighbor. When he hopped the fence on that side, he tipped over a couple garbage cans which alerted the dog and well, as they say, the rest is history.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Who doesn’t love emeralds?

Published on by edremsrolaLeave a comment

Have you ever seen some hedge rows after a big snowfall? They will often look a little like an octopus after an undersea bar room brawl. Branches layed out this way and that due to the heavy load of the snow. Then add the brownish / bronze winter color and you’ve got a hedge that will not only require a tremendous amount of work to prune back into shape, but even when in good form will retain that winter color until the warming temps of spring wake it up and revive its green color. Surely there is a better alternative to that old garden standby, Thuja occidentalis ‘Pyramidalis’.

Fortunately,  we are in luck, there is a superior introduction from Denmark that solves the problems described above. Thuja occidentalis ‘Smaragd’ has beautiful glossy dark green foliage that remains green all year long. Not only that, but it has a more compact habit which makes it more resistant to “blowing out” in heavy snow loads. So, now we have an improved Arborvitae, but who outside of Denmark can pronounce it’s name?

Thuja occidentalis Smaragd
Thuja occidentalis ‘Smaragd’

Back in the early 1980’s, when my good friend Jean Iseli introduced me to the plant, he told me to, “begin with an ‘s’ sound, clear your throat and end with a solid ‘d'”. As it turns out, ‘Smaragd’ translates to “Emerald,” describing its year-round color, so we will often find it labeled, Emerald Green Arborvitae in our local garden centers.

Whichever name you prefer; if you are looking for a hardy, good-natured tree for a hedge, to flank the driveway or as a single specimen you should definitely consider ‘Smaragd.’

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Colorful Conifers

Published on by edremsrola4 Comments

I am getting excited about spring! The days are getting longer, the sun is peaking out from behind the clouds from time to time, and I’ve been able to work in my garden with just a sweatshirt and vest instead of my winter coat and raingear.  The garden beds have been pretty much cleared of the remains of last year’s perennials and the debris that had blown in over the winter.

Every year as I’m doing my late winter cleanup, I tell myself to fill in more of my garden spaces with dwarf conifers since they require so little care and provide color all year long. I know my wife will try to talk me into adding just a few more flowering plants, and I’m sure that I’ll give in because they are great companions to my conifers, but I know I’m going to use most of my garden budget this year to increase my collection of low maintenance, colorful, dwarf conifers.

Thuja occidentalis 'Golden Tuffet'

The first one on my list is Thuja occidentalis ‘Golden Tuffet’ for its rich golden orange color, fine texture and compact form. I’ve got just the place for it near the gray-green of my Picea pungens ‘Globe’, the bright blue of my Picea pungens ‘St. Mary’s Broom,’ the rich green of Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana Gracilis’ and the deep red of my Acer palmatum dissectum ‘Crimson Queen.’ This little corner of color will loose the reds of the ‘Crimson Queen’ Japanese maple during the winter, but all the other colors will remain year-round.

I’m sure once I’ve brought home and planted a ‘Golden Tuffet’, my wife will be happy with the color spot it provides (and I’ll have eliminated another area of annuals in my garden with a colorful, easy care plant that we can enjoy year after year).

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Garden sentinel

Published on by edremsrolaLeave a comment

I gave my friends at Iseli Nursery a visit today since the weather was looking a little better and I needed some garden inspiration after a long morning on my hands and knees pruning back the remains of last year’s showy perennials. (Have I mentioned that conifers provide year-round color and are virtually maintenance free?)

While taking a walk through their display gardens, I was impressed with how great the Thuja occidentalis ‘Degroot’s Spire’ was looking after all these years. I remember when they planted this specimen back in the mid 1980’s. It was one in a grouping of three that were all in the range of five to six feet tall. Today, I just happened to have a small tape measure in my jacket pocket and found that this beauty is now just over 20 feet tall and nearly five feet across. Even with the heavy snow we had a few weeks ago, this plant shows no sign of snow damage.

Thuja occidentalis 'Degroot's Spire'

Today, ‘Degroot’s Spire’ still has a very nice bronze cast to its normally dark green spring and summer color. Like several other conifers, the cold winter temperatures will cause the foliage to change color. The coming warmer days of spring will bring on that rich green color once again. Its soft tight foliage has a bit of a twist and almost appears as ruffles of green covering a straight and tall column.

I’ve seen ‘Degroots Spire’ used as a hardy (to zone 3) privacy hedge, in groups as a focal point or even as the center piece of a large garden sundial. My own ‘Degroot’s are much smaller than the specimen I saw today, and based on what I saw, it will be 25 or 30 years before they may outgrow their place as sentrys on either side of the entrance to my driveway.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Thanks again to Iseli Nursery!