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One Exceptional Plant - The Green Giant
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By B Hirst
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Why We Like the Green Giant Arborvita(e) So Much
Our farm, Highland Hill Farm, is located in solid clay. Wetherefore like plants that grow well in dense, heavy, ratherimpermeable, NOT well-drained soils. One of the arborvitae, theGreen Giant, the Western Redcedar Tree, or botanically, theThuja Plicata, is our favorite. Here is why:
The hardiness zone the Green Giant Arborvita tolerates is fromzone 5 to zone 8. That's where extreme cold temperatures getdown to a temperate level of about 15 or 20 degrees in thewinter (Zone 8), but also as low as a frigid level of 15 or 20degrees BELOW zero (zone 5). Green giants are evergreens, beingcedars. Their rapid growth rates can in ideal conditions reach 3feet per year. Site requirements for the Green Giant Arborvitaare sun to partial shade, moist well drained soil preferred (butstill does well in clay), and protection from wind, at lest whenyoung.
The Green Giant is a beautiful tree. It has an aestheticallyfine form. It's conical, being narrow to broadly pyramidal,reaching from 50 feet to 80 feet in height in southeastyernPennsylvania. The width at the base of the cone is usually about15 feet to 20 feet. The leaves are rich green making gracefulfoliage.
Green Giants make a superb privacy screen. They keep theirfoliage color year 'round, great for brightening bleak graywinter days with snow on the ground. The cinnamon bright redbark when young turn rich russet brown with time crating astrong contrast with the needle leaves.
Green Giants' flowers, their fruit are pretty little light brownhalf-inch female cones. (Just so you know, Green giants arefemales, so its okay to call the cones pretty.) The Green Giantis also a wonderful shade tree, casting a dark, dense shade. Thewood is strong too, once the tree is beyond its youth.
This is an arborvita that should outlive even yourgrandchildren. There are Green Giants out west documented to beover 300 years old. Just don't plant these too close to theocean, or roads in areas where there's a lot of salt used forsnow removal. If you get over 100 inches of snowfall and moreper year, no roadside Arborvita planting where salt is used,PLEASE. The greatest soldier of ancient Greece in the Trojan warhad his one little weak spot, what proved to be a fatal flaw,and the "Achilles Heel" for Green Giant Arborvitae ishypersensitivity to salt.
http://www.zone5trees.com , http://www.highlandhillfarm andhttp://www.seedlingsrus.com
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