Re: [gardeners] Atlas cedar

David G. Smith (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sun, 31 Jan 1999 07:37:39 -0500 

OK, here's the story.  We have a smallish suburban front yard.  60 x 40
feet, more or less.

We had four trees, a dogwood, a Japanese maple, and a blue spruce all
together on the left, and another Japanese maple on the right.

Last summer the maple on the right got sick, I think.  The leaves all
shriveled up, one main branch at a time.  Bob Stewart on Gardens said "it
sounds suspiciously like the dreaded VERTICILLIUM WILT".  We didn't really
like it so much anyway, it was planted too close to the house.  So I'm
planning to get rid of it before flowers come up this spring.

Last fall a drunk driver knocked down the blue spruce.

We were just going to get another blue spruce, but put it on the right side
of the yard, farther from the house than the maple.  I guess there's a 40 x
40 area for it, bounded by the house, the neighbor's yard, the sidewalk,
and the dogwood.  I thought maybe we could find something more unusual than
the blue spruce, but still blue.  Someone suggested the blue atlas cedar,
it looked good in a picture, so here we are.  (Someone else suggested
jacaranda.  Wow!  Almost makes me want to move south.)

Awaiting suggestions...

David
(who pruned fruit trees yesterday)


At 05:55 PM 1/30/99 -0800, you wrote:
>On Sat, 30 Jan 1999, David G. Smith wrote:
>
>> I like weeping trees.  We don't have room for a 150 foot tree, but it's got
>> to take a while to get that big, right?  I figured if it gets too big for
>> the yard and we're still living here we'll worry about it then.
>
>They put on growth pretty fast.  And big trees are expensive and
>sometimes dangerous to take down.  Around here, I see Cedrus libani
>put on a couple of feet a year.
>
>
>> Does that 'Mt. St. Catherine' cedar look blue?
>
>
>Yup.  The blueness is caused by the layer of white wax. on the needles.
>"glaucous" is botspeak.  In an area exposed to acid deposition (acid rain,
>acid snow, dry acid deposition), or if the tree is sprayed with oils
>for pest control, the blue color will disappear.  
>
>How much space do you have for this tree?  Let's see if we can
>find you one that fits better, with blue needles.
>
>
>Kay Lancaster    kay@fern.com
>
>
>