| The Green Giant Arborviate is a great fast | | | | They keep their foliage color year 'round, great |
| growing buffer plant. Many people ask if can really | | | | for brightening bleak gray winter days with snow |
| grow 3' per year. Well, it does and it is also | | | | on the ground. The cinnamon bright red bark |
| durable which seperates it from other real fast | | | | when young turn rich russet brown with time |
| growing trees. | | | | crating a strong contrast with the needle leaves. |
| Our farm, Highland Hill Farm, is located in solid clay. | | | | Green Giants' flowers, their fruit are pretty little |
| We therefore like plants that grow well in dense, | | | | light brown half-inch female cones. (Just so you |
| heavy, rather impermeable, NOT well-drained soils. | | | | know, Green giants are females, so its okay to |
| One of the arborvitae, the Green Giant, the | | | | call the cones pretty.) The Green Giant is also a |
| Western Redcedar Tree, or botanically, the Thuja | | | | wonderful shade tree, casting a dark, dense |
| Plicata, is our favorite. Here is why: | | | | shade. The wood is strong too, once the tree is |
| The hardiness zone the Green Giant Arborvita | | | | beyond its youth. |
| tolerates is from zone 5 to zone 8. That's where | | | | This is an arborvita that should outlive even your |
| extreme cold temperatures get down to a | | | | grandchildren. There are Green Giants out west |
| temperate level of about 15 or 20 degrees in the | | | | documented to be over 300 years old. Just don't |
| winter (Zone 8), but also as low as a frigid level | | | | plant these too close to the ocean, or roads in |
| of 15 or 20 degrees BELOW zero (zone 5). Green | | | | areas where there's a lot of salt used for snow |
| giants are evergreens, being cedars. Their rapid | | | | removal. If you get over 100 inches of snowfall |
| growth rates can in ideal conditions reach 3 feet | | | | and more per year, no roadside Arborvita planting |
| per year. Site requirements for the Green Giant | | | | where salt is used, PLEASE. The greatest soldier |
| Arborvita are sun to partial shade, moist well | | | | of ancient Greece in the Trojan war had his one |
| drained soil preferred (but still does well in clay), | | | | little weak spot, what proved to be a fatal flaw, |
| and protection from wind, at lest when young. | | | | and the "Achilles Heel" for Green Giant Arborvitae |
| The Green Giant is a beautiful tree. It has an | | | | is hypersensitivity to salt. |
| aesthetically fine form. It's conical, being narrow to | | | | This arb will probably not grow out of fashion as |
| broadly pyramidal, reaching from 50 feet to 80 | | | | the Bradford Pear. The simple reason is that is a |
| feet in height in southeastyern Pennsylvania. The | | | | durable plant choice. This is plant that will become |
| width at the base of the cone is usually about 15 | | | | very common in a wide range of landscape |
| feet to 20 feet. The leaves are rich green making | | | | applications. People like plants that look and grow |
| graceful foliage. | | | | well with little care. |
| Green Giants make a superb privacy screen. | | | | |