It's far more golden/yellow in person, the only photo doing its color even a little bit of justice is the first picture. My phone camera seems to wash it out in green for some reason.

The "burnt" side

Burnt side

Shade side (you can see the pot in this one)

Shade side (ignore neighbors yard lol)

This entire bed is on a little hill under a pretty old American hornbeam, the street is about 10 feet out (hill makes it look closer). The Tsuga heterophylla 'Thorsen's Weeping' pushed up to 13'' of growth this year on some of the first buds to break! It seems to love the afternoon shade/morning sun combo. The boxwood are 'Justin Brouwers'. Just a temporary home for the 'Firefly', this bed is still a work in progress.

its washing out in the first pic.. from the white door.. and white cement ... for better pix.. always look behind the plant ....

anyway ... i think your issue is moot ... after next spring flush ... there wont be a burned side ... eh???

i think the real question is if you have enough sun.. to get the yellow you want ... i wouldnt even include the 15 mins around noon ...

do you have experience with trees i pots ... and wintering them over and all that??? .. and why is it going in the pot ???

and i cant decide if you should repot it in fall .. or if you are better off with your pot in the ground for winter ... does you soil drain completely .. fast??? ... retained water in winter is not a good thing ....

so.. with all those questions... i just wouldnt worry about the burn issue ...

i dont have this one.. i wonder what its annual growth rate is...and just how long it will be happy in an 8 gallon box.. that isnt very big ...

the first pic .. without a scale.. shows at least a 9 inch growth ... if it does that for 5 years .. 45 inches ... this thing is going to be nearly 4 feet taller ... of course transplant will impact that somewhat ... but this plant.. 4 feet taller.. isnt going to be impressed with an 8 gal pot ... and this is where you say that was a typo and you meant 80 gal?????

ken

I've only had it a few days, no idea if the spot is enough for the color. Just trying to get it enough sun to survive the summer without burn until I figure out exactly what to do with it.

I overwinter my pots in a shed for anything zone 5 or up. I'm in a microclimate in a soft 6b so its more of a 7a.

Yes, fast draining soil, especially on that little hill, hence why I was comfortable with sinking the pot. Annual growth rate is slow, 3-6" per year according to Iseli.

I haven't made the pot/box yet, so size isn't set in stone. I intend on up-potting every 2-3 years to accommodate for growth and media degradation; I don't have a place for it on the property at this time that meets my aesthetic requirements, so it stays mobile in a pot. 10 year size is below 6 feet, it's a dwarf seedling selection of 'skylands'.

Isn't it a safer bet to bare-root when dormant in early spring?

The ground definitely freezes here, the average January temp in north NJ is below freezing, around 29 F°.

The few times I've bare rooted non-dormant conifers, they seemed to really take quite the hit. One oddly hot fall day and it'd be a goner after bare-rooting; in NJ we get the oddly cold spring day and the oddly hot fall day probably once or twice a year.

At the same time, I know it's going to become root-bound, or more so than it probably already is (nurseries blah blah), if left in that pot this fall. What about planting it in the ground early fall to avoid more root binding, then pulling it out very early spring and doing the bare-root xfer then while still dormant? That seems like maximum root growth to me, but I'm still somewhat new to this. Further advice would be much appreciated.

Chris, I planted two this spring , one in full sun from around 10am to sundown, other one get dun from noon to dun down . These plants have no sun burn, I'm in hunterdon county NJ.

went outside and took this photo for you

Farrukh

Please excuse the "dun" i.e. sun

hey farrukh , what's that weeper to the right ? looks to have some variegation

ron

sorry , chris

Ok so I get the feeling they're more tolerant of sun than people give them credit for. Good to know.

Ron, sharp eyes! It's picea abies "gold drift ". It was trained upright Shen I bought it , I've since pulled it down gradually as I want it more spreading . Here's a close up

Sharp eyes _ ha,,,I thought it was a pine

nice presentation , ron

Chris, you have a pretty tree. I purchased a Firefly at my local nursery during their annual sale. I'm on Long Island and the nursery had their Firefly specimens in full sun and like yours shows little burn. I'll be planting the tree in full sun.

How long have you had your Tsuga heterophylla 'Thorsen's Weeping'? How do you care for it? Any issues with it? I've had my 4.5 ft Tsuga heterophylla 'Thorsen's Weeping' for 3 years now. It is in full sun till the early or late afternoon depending on the month. It has put on a nice amount of growth each year. Each year it has interior needle loss (especially in July and August) but the tree seems to be holding its own. I don't water the tree too often anymore, I only water when it hasn't rained for some time.

Thanks stuart! In spring I will place it under my Acer griseum (in it's pot), the spot is perfect, full sun except for shade via the paperbark from 12:30 to 1:30, the times of highest UV index. I want that nice color and growth but not at the expense of any burn; I hate burn.

5 years now on the thorsen's, I'm in a light 6b, but I'm in a microclimate on the eastern face of a small mountain (500 ft above the rest of the town) so it's more like a 7a. It gets sun from 8:00 to 11:30, then shade, then sun from 3:30 to 5:00. It absolutely seems to LOVE the mid day shade. Every year as soon as the first push starts hardening, I give it a nice hefty dose of foliage-pro and it pushes a second round of light growth, like 2-3''. I usually get 6" from the first push. This year it got 8-9" in some places, then another 2-3" from the second push. It seems that as long as the second push starts before July there's no winter issues; I didn't do this the first year I had it to make sure it was well ready for the winter. It's also the only place on my 1 acre that I mulch in spring AND fall, the roots are what make it such a delicate plant... also I find that the mini hill it's on seems to protect it from the lowest of the lows in the mid winter.

I watered it heavily every second or third day the spring I planted it, not much that summer surprisingly... I did plant it only 1 week into spring though. Now I only water it if we go a week or more without rain in the summer. It doesn't seem to need it, but I do it to err on the side of caution, my soil drains nicely but not too fast.

It definitely starts dropping internal needles quite significantly come July and August, so I wouldn't worry about that; it's definitely a part of the growth pattern. Also, don't cut/trim any needle-free tissue, they are FILLED with hidden buds that will fill it back in, and then some come the next spring. I don't prune it AT ALL, as it consistently re-fills the areas of needle loss with new growth; very cool plant.

Hi Chris, I'm curious to know how your Thorsen's Hemlock is doing with the heat and humidity we're currently experiencing? Am enormous amount of green needles on the outside are falling off my Thorsen's Hemlock. This happened within one day. I hope the tree isn't dead because of the heat and very high humidity. We've been getting 10 minutes of heavy rain each day. The temperature has been in the low 90's but the humidity is very high. My Thorsen's Hemlock currently gets full sun till about 3 oclock in the afternoon and then it gets partially shaded. Maybe my tree needs more shade. My Thorsen's Hemlock has had brown needles at the very top for the past few weeks but the tree has been doing this each year. We've had higher temperatures than what we're currently experiencing so my conclusion is that the tree doesn't like very high humidity or it needed more water.

Thanks again for the helpful information regarding your Thorsen's Hemlock.

At a BBQ at the moment so I must be brief. Mine gets sun from 8-11 then nothing until 5pm. Absolutely no afternoon sun and I get full quoted growth (6-12" per year). Even mine seems a little unhappy with this weather; yours must be quite upset with that afternoon sun + this heat.