I would call plants in your photos 'Aurea Robusta'. Based on the interpretation that 'Aurea Robusta' is a frequently seen, bluish green, medium growing or larger tree with lemon yellow on top and 'Aurea' is a rare, forest green, shrub to small tree with golden yellow nearly throughout. With variation in concepts of the two cultivars probably being based on variation in appearance of 'Aurea Robusta' in response to site conditions and individual specimen cultivation histories. And due also to the true 'Aurea' seldom being seen.

If you're correct, which you usually are, I hope the form is a result of cultivation history. I need it to stay somewhat narrow; the spot is large enough for some serious growth in width but only to an extent.

do you have a history with growing atlantica in your z6 .... and have no fear of that one bad winter that will take it???

i cant grow them in my z5 ... ken

ps: well i can.. at min.. for one season .. lol

Measured heights reported for individual specimens of "'Aurea' and / or 'Aurea Robusta'"* in Seattle (USDA 8) during 2006 ranged from 48 ft. to 69 ft. If you do not have room for a landmark tree anything looking like your posted photos at nursery sizes is likely to go on to overwhelm the planting site over time.

*So listed due to the number of published accounts equating the two, or otherwise confusing the issue

I have unlimited vertical height and plenty of width for the foreseeable 3-4 decades, even then all I have to do is take out a mountain fire or two and it has unlimited space.

I'm in a microclimate in a microclimate. East side of a forested mountain (plants respond like z7b. I have a 'Thorson's weeping' western hemlock that's had no problems the last 2 winters. There's probably close to 3 or 4 dozen cedrus atlantica in my neighborhood, some are way past 60'. I have a 'sapphire nymph' that's doing wonderfully. Cedrus atlantica LOVES my zone. It's what people use here instead of blue spruces, they're ubiquitous.

Today I found an amazing 13",,,,edit,,,13'

cool !

It won't let me edit the post. I'm a biochemist and nomenclature nutbag, and I'm very particular about that stuff; I don't know how it got past me and now it's going to drive me mad that I can't fix it ;)

Embo- with the sheer amount of monstrous Cedrus atlantica in my neighborhood alone, it's one species I'm confident has an excellent chance of out surviving me, and I'm 25. If you ask me, this tree will do fantastically here up until climate change has it's way with us all.

I really should change my zone tag to 7a or 7b, I've seen negative temps here maybe twice in my life. My county is 1 degree from 7a and I live in an insanely helpful microclimate. I overwintered a weak deodar cedar in nothing but a planter box last winter and it did just fine, didn't even sink the box (it was a test). To give you an idea, there are some spots on my property where I'd give a zone 8 tree a shot without much concern.

Actually the first thing that goes on container stock is the young roots on the outside of the root mass. So when checking for possible winter damage the inside of the pot is the first place to look, and not the top of the plant.

Hardiness aside here in my area many Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar in particular are having blight problems in later years. In fact this year it seems to have become pretty much general, with the majority of examples encountered being littered with dead twigs.

Seems to be lot of misinfo about "aurea" and "aurea robusta" etc...I have one that I plated this year labeled "aurea" who knows what it is. It looks pretty much like yours except only about 7'-8' Who knows. It's something a little different from the usual blue atlas cedars everywhere around here, that's all I know.

When I bought mine 3 years ago I was told it was a Golden Atlas Cedar and was about 6 ft - 7 ft tall. It's probably 'Aurea Robusta' because it now grows pretty fast. It's atleast 10 years old and is now around 13 ft tall but is currently narrow. It's more golden in the spring and is located in full sun. It mostly puts growth upwards and I don't see it getting too wide anytime soon.

Here's the tree in the spring you can see the golden color.

I was helping a friend get his garden ready for a party yesterday. The (non-weeping) Blue Atlas Cedar hedge across the alley was full of blight. (It became a focus because it had grown across the alley and was shading part of his plantings, resulting in us working on it a bit with a pole pruner).

Cedrus Tip Blight

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=cedrus%20tip%20blight&qs=n&form=QBIR&sp=-1&pq=cedrus%20tip%20blight&sc=0-17&sk=&cvid=57C83005A2784F37931C66B4BD72DB6A