AS MANY BEGINNERS DO, I CREATED MY GARDEN BACKWARDS: planting herbaceous things first and trees and shrubs later, when their different time to maturity would have made the opposite strategy smarter. Worst of all, I forgot conifers almost entirely in those first years. I’ve stayed put long enough to outgrow my early mishaps, and have some favorite evergreens to share including the weeping Alaska Cedar cedar, Chamaecyparis nootkatensis ‘Pendula’ (above, in my far borders to the west of the house). The first in a series on beloved conifers.
Two weeping Alaska cedars grow here now, the first a 40th birthday present from my garden mentor; the other (shown) a few years younger. Each one is about 20 feet; though they are said to reach 60 or even 90 feet in the wild (Alaska to Oregon), half that is the expectation in cultivation. A Zone 4-7 or 8 creature, it’s happy here because I have the moisture it craves. It has become somewhat popular (though not commonplace) in the Northeast in recent years.
Speaking of moisture: What distinguishes Chamaecyparis nootkatensis ‘Pendula’ from other conifers is that it seems to drip. Despite a vertical trunk, its pendulous branches are made even further fluid-seeming by the way the rich green foliage positively hangs from them (above).
There isn’t a time of year when I don’t love this conifer…well, perhaps just on my mowing days each week in summer, when its shaggy built-in tree skirt requires special treatment to get around and up under. Not much of it to ask, really, for such persistent, year-round grace.
slideshow: beloved conifers 
beloved conifers: recap of coziest woody plants 
They are absolutely beautiful!!
How do you keep the deer off them?
Hello, Balsamfir (you conifer, you). Truth be told, I have never grown them outside the 8-foot fence that surrounds my place the last 10 years or so. So I do not know. I do know that deer here will eat things as prickly as blue spruce down to the nubbin as high up as they can reach. The recent promotion by the nursery industry, perhaps five years back, of Thuja plicata (the Western arborvitae) as deerprrof for the East tricked me into trying some outside the fence. That lasted about 10 minutes (or I should say they, as in the Thuja, lasted about 10 minutes). I wouldn’t trust hungry deer with anything but daffodils, and maybe plastic plants.
Ok, one more plant to be added to my to be planted list. I’ve been contemplating an Atlas Cedar. I will have to compare the two now…
Many years ago, when I also had a garden in New York City or thereabouts, I had a blue Atlas cedar…but they are not hardy here, sadly. Just so you know this choice among such shaggy creatures is partially dictated by my climate zone; that’s a great plant, too.
They’re just beautiful. Wish my yard was big enough.
It’s lovely. Looks right at home in your snowy landscape.
Wow! I’m running out of space, wish I could plant one.
This frigid winter so far has put me off the out of doors. Clearing the mess after the ice storm (which will be with me till Spring, apparently) and having to shovel the driveway and walk almost once a day has really got me down. But, the sight of those swooping drippy branches has brightened me. It looks like something drawn in finger paints by a Kindergartener. Thanks for the cheer, Margaret.
Whether it’s because of our long, hot, humid summers or because we don’t have enough cold days in the winter, the result is the same – only a few conifers grow in my region. So, I enjoy them vicariously and your blog is the perfect place to do just that. What brightened this day for me was the sight of a clump of yellow Crocus blooming happily by my back steps! Spring can’t be too far away.
Oh Bless You!!!
Absolutely a favorite of mine, so wonderfully, I don’t know, morose? but beautifully so – a four season plant with feelings!
Oh, that tree is beautiful! I want one, and I could plant one if I dig up a raised bed, and move the vegetable garden about 8 feet to the right….
I have a Nootkatensis in my garden and it’s just gorgeous esp. with a little snow. I just added three “Green Arrow” which are also Alaskan cedars but super skinny for those of you running out of room.
Glad to spread some cheer, Brian; and yes, Christine–there is something funereal about the weeping branches and the tree’s habit, you are right. Thanks, Linda, for the tip on the columnar form: more about it here.
My favorite is also a Chamaecyparis, the Hinoki cypress. Your Alaska cedar sure looks tempting, but I bet our annual droughts would do it in…or require unconscionable amounts of watering.
Hi Margaret
love your tree! My friend had a house with several dozen planted by the previous owner, around the perimeter of her lot(about 1/2 acre) so that they looked like dancing trees encircling her house and I was enchanted by them. They are called “False Cypress” here in Nova Scotia and are becoming more popular though not ubiquitous here and look their best in winter. I always smile when I see them. I bought a baby one last summer of the Glauca (blue-grey?)variety but was rather put out to find it isn’t a weeping variety but it is still quite stately for a 2 foot tree. I hope it survives its first winter.Looking forward to the next in your series! Thanks once again for brightening my day Margaret. Oh and congratulations on your new president, exciting times for your country!
Liz
When I look at your weeping Alaska cedar, I see a witch, hat and all, dancing in the breeze. Conifers do have personalities.
Conifers came late to my garden too. I think it is the normal way to plant, flowers first, conifers last. That way, the conifers are appreciated so much more.
Suzy
Welcome, Suzy, old friend from the garden world. I am reassured that someone with your years of expertise in garden-building did it “wrong” the first time, too–or as you call it, the “normal way.” Makes me feel better. Thanks.
Yes, yes to conifers! Excellent post.
Can’t get enough of them. Could hug every one I see. This one is a real sweetheart, though. Very grand.
At home I don’t have the space for most trees, but maybe a small one would be possible. I do have some creeping junipers which I always thought were hip. I have some thoughts on small trees… maybe this year
Welcome, Wayne. Thanks for visiting A Way to Garden. Sometimes I think some of the “large shrubs” (like some viburnums, such as the doublefile) are better as “small trees” than the so-called “small trees.” Like a magnolia is a small tree (or many kinds are) and yet they are pretty big and wide and not really “small.” Ditto the Stewartia, etc. Let us know what you end up with.
I live in Washington State. Can anyone tell me where I can get a dozen or so seedlings?
Welcome, Bob. I do not know who has seedlings, specifically (Musser Forests, which is one well-known source for conifer and other woody-plant seedlings, doesn’t grow it). Forestfarm has it, but it’s $20 for the smallest size, plus shipping I think. So here’s what I’d do: Ask your local nursery that carries a good selection of trees and shrubs about buying some “liners” from them, the kind of small plants they normally pot up and grow on a bit and sell later. They get them wholesale in large numbers quite cheaply; perhaps they will sell you some for a markup, or if not that they might order in some 1-gallon-size plants for you. Small (young) conifers are sometimes used in troughs or other pots to make miniature landscapes, so they are on the market and I expect a good nursery can help you. I special order a lot of my woody plants, so don’t be shy.
Margaret & Fans – Enjoyed reading about your love for conifers! Our place if full of them. Last year my husband planted an Alaska Cedar – a small one. He ordered a bunch of trees from http://www.techtrees.net and we are so pleased with them. TECH Trees sells only native, container trees – and they are very reasonably priced – something like $5 – $11. The more you buy, the cheaper they are. Our daughter just built a new house – and she planted native trees, too! They are gorgeous! Will share this blog site with her and encourage her to buy an Alaska Cedar as well!
Welcome, Getti, and thank you for the source information for young trees, and also for sharing A Way to Garden with your daughter. Come again soon.
Margaret – I just happened to stumble onto your site – and it looks so full of good info! Perhaps, a little overwhelming for me – but will try to figure out. I will bookmark and hope to add from time to time. Even though my husband and I are tree lovers, I am truly a novice. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise!
stopping back… viburnums are way cool. it may be the way to go… I will think about it.
This is one of my all time favorite conifers. I don’t own one, but there is abandoned nursery in Oklahoma which has several and was the first place I ever saw one of any size growing here. Achingly beautiful. I’m glad you have three.~~Dee
DO NOT PLANT THIS TREE AS A FOUNDATION PLANTING CLOSE TO YOUR HOUSE! Oh, I am soooo sad about my weeping alaskan cedar. WARNING – they grow slowly the first several years so you are not clear about what will happen. But ours is now nearly 20 years old and…. we have to chop it down. It grows like crazy! Around Seattle this lovely variety is planted in many locations — often very close to the house, as ours is. We have owned our house for 5 years this month, and this tree in front was a major feature. I asked when we bought the house – “hey, is that done growing”??? I was told it would not get taller — yet it’s grown another 10 feet tall, easy, in 5 years. Most important, it is getting much wider over 10 or 12 feet now– and its roots are now invading the foundation. I have been told to get rid of it by every consultant, arborist, etc. that I’ve contacted and I just can’t do it — quite yet. But you can’t walk by it anymore. I know I have to do it this year. …. – DLT
Welcome, dltseattlearea. Yes, this is probably the biggest mistakle we all make at one time or another: not leaving enough space for the eventual size of the mature version of the young plant we are planting. The Alaska cedar is a big guy, not something for right up against the house (maybe 15 feet away or so). Thanks for your advice, and see you soon again.
Can you tell me how much care and what kind of care the weeping cedars require? I live in PA (Zone 6) and have heavy clay soil. I’m wondering how much I would need to amend the soil and how much water the trees like, given that clay doesn’t drain very well.
Thanks.
Welcome, James. It likes moisture, so in that sense you are good, but also good drainage (or at least adequate if not great). If you have puddling and pooling more than shortly after rain, pick another spot. If you just know there’s clay from touching the soil (sticky!) but it drains nonetheless, OK. If you want to improve, don’t just improve a little pocket/hole for the plant, work many inches of compost into the surrounding area, too. You don’t want a ghetto of OK soil that then the plant will outgrow, you want a good overall root zone for it in its eventual size.
About the Alaskan Cedar:
Deer have eaten everything at their eye-level. Will the branches fill in again, and if so, over how many years? We planted two of them around our entry way last year. Afraid we didn’t believe the stories about all the deer in winter. Too late, we are now believers!
Welcome, Marj. Here’s the thing: Chamaecyparis and junipers are among the evergreens that don’t like to be pruned too far back into old wood (since there are no dormant buds there the way there are with, say, yews, that can push new growth and reinvigorate the plant). So if the “pruning” the deer did is farther back than the innermost green side shoot is/was, it probably will not regrow. (On this post about another favorite Chamaecyparis cultivar, I have a link to a video on how these can (and cannot) be pruned, by the way.) So sorry for your mutilated plants. Deer are impossible; you have probably read about my approach to them. Hope to see you again even though I probably didn’t have good news to report this time. Sorry.
I recently discovered the Weeping Alaskan Cedar at a local nursery. It took my breathe away and I purchased it on the spot My tree is about 8′ tall (6′ wide) and the soil is well drained. Was given instructions for planting, but not sure how much water per day is enough. It seems to be looking a little weepier in the week it’s been home.
Do you happen to have a video course on these trees? I love this tree and want to treat it right!
Thanks-
Elaine
Welcome, Elaine. No video at the moment, but here’s the thing about watering: Think about the size of the root ball that was on that plant, and how much water it would take to moisten all of it…not just the surface. A lot, and you can’t apply it fast; it takes time to trickle in and down deep.
You want to soak it very slowly (so the water doesn’t run off) and all around the roots. This would be easiest with an inexpensive piece of “leaky pipe” soaker hose snaked around the root area on the soil surface (and probably “pinned” down with soil staples (the U-shaped metal pins you can buy to hold landscape fabric down, or can fashion out of clothes hangers or other heavy wire); it would take hours to soak the area thoroughly with this slow method of application. You could also use a “rose” (the hose-end device that’s often on those watering wands, not unlike the end of a watering can), run the water on slow, and lay the wand on the ground and move the nozzle around on the root zone every hour or so till the whole mass is well-watered.
Two weeks ago I purchased two weeping alaskian chedar trees. We have had off and on rainy days since I purchased the trees. Getting water hasn’t been a problem. I recently have noticed the color in the leaves have lightened up and the limbs appear to weeping more than when I bought the trees. Can you give me your advise what is happening? I live in Virginia.
Welcome, Cindy. For woody plants to wilt and perhaps even discolor so quickly sounds like some other transplant-shock symptom, perhaps a water issue. Even if it has been raining, did you thoroughly water the plants, soaking the entire root system deeply, after planting? Rain won’t suffice with a new transplant.
Often the rootballs are damaged in transplanting (especially with ball and burlapped plants — was this in a nursery pot, or field-dug?). Sometimes rootballs of either kind are dry and difficult to re-moisten, which i why I ask if the plant was thoroughly soaked on planting.
I just bought one of these – it’s about 6 1/2 feet tall. Is there anything I should know or do before I plant it? Any special instructions or tips would be greatly appreciated!
Thankyou!
Welcome, Lisa. I have never seen this beauty miss a beat here, and I have two of them that have been with me for more than 10 years each. Wonderful tree, graceful and easy, and relatively fast to grow once it settles in. I think you will be delighted. Simply be sure to plant it at the same level or a tiny bit higher than it was in the pot or rootball (depending how you purchased, in burlap or a pot) so it doesn’t get buried — true of all woody things, not just this. Water thoroughly (which will take some time) and regularly this season to help it settle in. Nice to see you and hope to again soon.
I live in the upstate area of South Carolina, which is near Greenville, SC. Two years ago, I rescued three Alaskan Cedars from the yard of a local, burned down house. They are about 6-8 feet tall now. I had to trim alot of singed foliage, but they seemed to be doing ok and had some new growth last year. This spring they are not looking so great. I don’t see any new growth and there are a very few brown branches. We have been getting plenty of rain this season and the soil drains well. They are in a flower bed with mulch and lots of sun.
I don’t know what to fertilize with, when or how much. Sure, we got them for free, but we so want to make them flourish after surviving the fire. They had only been in the ground at the burned house for a month. They are so neat with their uneven branching. After reading your info on them, I realize they are landscape cultivars. Hope you can help.
Thanks
Alan
Welcome, Alan. Sounds like the poor thing went through a lot! With these conifers I believe the “leaves” last three years, so you will see some brown on the older ones that are going to shed, but it sounds like you have more going on than that.
In the hottest part of its hardiness range (which is Zone 8a I think but barely) it will appreciate shade from afternoon blazing sun, or will suffer. Like other Chamaecyparis, it can also be injured by dry winter winds or the harsh combination of freezing/wind/sun in the winter (winterburn). I don’t know about your location precisely sun and exposure-wise, but stressors like fun sun or a windy, exposed sits in winter can contribute to injuries. (In my cold zone it will take full sun, but can still get winterburn.)
I don’t feed ailing plants, normally, but rather try to see what is going on with them first (following the theory that if I was sick I probably wouldn’t feel like digesting a meal on top of everything else). I would keep it watered regularly and thoroughly (deeply) and keep an eye on it.
Thank you Margaret,
The trees are protected from afternoon sun year round. They are in a somewhat open area, 50 feet from the woods. There is a very tall poplar 10 feet away, but it towers over these three trees and poplar’s branches start way up there. I am in the foothills of the Appalachains, considered zone 7. We have been getting good rain until this last month or so, I will start soaking them every other day.
My homestead is in a small holler, so high winds are not a regular thing at this level.
Thanks again for the help
Alan
Hello Margaret. I live in New York on Long Island. I’ve had a Weeping Alaskan Cedar for about 11 years that has been very healthy and growing well. Last summer I noticed some yellowing of the foliage, particularly on the bottom branches. This year I am noticing quite a bit more yellowing of the foliage and it appears that the foliage on the lower branches has thinned quite a bit too. Any idea what could be causing this? Thanks for your help.
Richard
Welcome, Richard. Is the tree just aging — starting to show its legs a bit — as many conifers do as they grow up, or is it really advancing and bad? Most of my Chamaecyparis of various kinds that are in semi-shady spots (which is better here for preventing winterburn) are kind of loose and a little bare below because they are shading themselves more and more as they grow. But maybe this is something more serious? Maybe you want to take a photo and email to awaytogarden [at] gmail?
Margaret:
Thanks so much for offering to take a look for a potential problem with my Alaskan Cedar. I’ve emailed a few photos that show the full plant and two close-ups.
Thanks again for your help.
Hello. Wondering if you — or others on the follow — can help. We had a beautiful 10 ft. weeping alaska cedar planted about 4 weeks ago — mid Michigan. It’s yellowing from the trunk out, lower branches up. At first I thought too much water (we’ve had a great deal of rain), but seeing your post makes me think this is not the issue. Full sun. So, I’m back to square one on the issue and how to stabilize this beautiful tree. Thoughts and recommendations welcome.
Welcome, Debbie. They will shed some of the interior and lower needles normally each year, but if this has been a dramatic occurrence perhaps something went wrong during transplant (plant wasn’t well-hydrated before planting, or dried afterward or somehow stressed from root damage or ????). Have you contacted the nursery where you got it? It’s hard for me to tell without seeing the tree, sad to say. If it’s getting crispy quickly I would always guess not well watered during its stress of transplant, but again, i can’t see how extreme the thing is.
Hello,
I planted a beautiful weeping cedar about 6-8 weeks ago. Almost half of the needles are completely brown! I planted it a little high and was very diligent about watering after reading your advice; could I have watered too much? Also, I noticed when I planted it that there were almost no roots – just a few scraggly ones. I suspect that there weren’t enough roots. Should I do anything else other than keep watering? I’d hate to lose it!
Thanks!! Lisa