I could try the Arborvitae pyramidalis as they seem to grow pretty quick in my area

==>>> where are you?

how about a pic

North of "Tarana" (aka Toronto!) - similar climate to yours in MI... we are not in a snow belt so yearly average snow is about 100 cm per year... sometimes can exceed 140 cm in a snowy year...

I don't have the space for the GG. There's about 6' width to work with if I want to get my lawn tractor through there, and that's a must...but what about the wintergreen I mentioned.. can they be sheered if they get too wide? As for the fastigiata, I find that it grows much faster in my area than the smaragd. I have both and the 4 fastigiata on my property have doubled in height in 3 seasons... they are pushing past 6'... and they've held up well over the past 3 winters... maybe they are good for my location... definitely readily available...

Or I could just go with the good ol standard Thuja occidentalis. They grow well in our region (native and very common) but they can grow really big. I suppose I could prune them every couple of years to control size. But I DO NOT want the perfectly squared off sheering results that many people strive for around here.. ends up looking like a green wall... I prefer the more natural shape.

I have never heard of 'Wareana' or 'Aureospicata' but I will look them up.

I should clarify that I can plant something that gets up to 6' then I'll still have 48" or so to get the mower through... so total space is more like 10'

I would try to find the T. o. 'Hetz Wintergreen' or listed as simply 'Wintergreen' if you can. I have a screen of T. 'Hetz Wintergreen' and they grow with a single leader so they don't splay apart in heavy snows. I planted 2.5' to 3' plants in 2002 and they are now at least 25' to 30' tall and make a nice screen.

I planted the screen on 30" centers.

Hey Greenthumb, I planted one this summer.. as a single specimen... great looking plant..

BUT, will they outgrow the spot? I have 6' + feet of width to work with.. and that's pushing it.. I should take a pic of the spot.. I also wonder now that maybe plants like H.W. might overpower the planting site. I need to screen about 18' to 20' of the fence That would mean about 4 plants if I space them 2.5' apart from each other... I don't need 25' tall plants. 20' max is all I need. In fact something between 15 to 20 tall would be ideal. Can the Hetz Wintergreen be sheared/pruned to control size and shape? I know that emerald green and other arbs respond very well to shearing. People around here lop of the tops and they seem to grow right back in a year or two. If I could control their size, they could be ideal since they are hardy, grow fast, are single leaders and attractive...

America Pillar - this looks interesting... can find it...?? http://www.lawnandlandscape.com/article/ll-110310-new-proven-winners/

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/american-pillar-arborvite-dsvw-vd~1427684

Here's the forum page for American Pillar arborvitae.

I have more than 40 of this tree. It grows fast but mine at 4 years are still sparse, hope in another year or 2 they will thicken more. Refer to the link above for pictures to help you see them. Hope this helps.

I am now leaning towards two options:

-plant smargd and be done with it.. great looking if not slow growing.. but neat and vibrant green and very readily available and cheap.. 10 Gal for $25 right now at my local nursery...

-plant fastigiata since I already have a very healthy 6.5' specimen planted along this fence I need to screen... I have three others planted elsewhere on the property and they are doing great having double in size in 3 years... the only thing that worries me is the multiple leaders on them.. I suppose I could just keep them sheered as they reach a goof height.

GG and WG just get too big, tall and will overwhelm the site.

I will take pics tomorrow to demonstrate. thanks

How about thuja occidentalis ‘nigra’ or for something a little smaller/slower growing thuja occidentalis ‘techny’ Both are taller/wider than smaragd but not monsters like green giant.

nigra on right

techny on right (left of small forever goldy, deer snack on lower techny, their path goes through the missing lower right), to left of techny is p abies cupressina, then smaragd (deer snack on lower part as well). Also p. strobus pendula, p. pungens baby blue eyes, and abies koreana horstmanns silberlocke(and a couple camo p. abies and serbian spruce)

You may need to prune the lower region as they get older to run your tractor by but they seem to take pruning pretty well, at least by deer. My are fairly young so hopefully others can comment more on your 6 foot width limitation and these 2 possibilities. Web says 6-10’ width, but I assume thats at age 10.

// it appears they take well to pruning.

nigra

techny

Here is the site I am dealing with... the interlock pavers are about 6 or 7' from the fence line... The first pic shows the fastagiata - this thing is doing great. I want to keep that there and plant 6 or 7 more down the line... I'll have to remove the Mock O and the recently planted anabelle. The Mock O is going to be a chore to remove.. Im removing it cause it doesn't give us 12 months and it tops out at 8' The other fastagiatas I've added will be uprooted when the temps cool in October and added to the line. I will have to buy 3 more or so, I think... they seem to do well in our climate/soil and have grown well.. these specimens are 3 years old and have more than doubled... One is close to 7' and started out at 3!

the multiple leaders are a bot fo a concern as I've pointed out... I wonder if I can trim them to control the rate of growth and perhaps encourage one leader to emerge.

We had Techny plated almost 18 months ago. They were 5' tall and now are about 7'. They look great (I admit I watered the heck out of them last year though).

I have never come across that name nor have I seen a "Techny" at our nurseries... but thanks..will keep an eye out

https://www.bing.com/search?q=thuja%20techny%20%20price&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=thuja%20techny%20price&sc=0-18&sk=&cvid=1C8A9A642E964BDCB29D2E911FE9DFD1

When I look at your pics, my gut feeling says thuja occidentalis nigra and thuja occidentalis techny are not the best choice, despite me suggesting them. This is based on their width - one site said techny gets 15’ wide and nigra is slightly larger (grows faster) than techny. I just think as they age and you prune to keep them to 6’ wide, you may run into problems, thinning of green at bottom mostly. Then again you may not as we’ve all seen pics of “majorly-deer-pruned-at-bottom-so-they-look-like-mushrooms” arborvitae that are still fully green at bottom. Plus the pics of pruned techny and pruned nigra posted above that look fine(not certain if techny are pruned in pic, but they appear to be). I just dont have experience pruning arborvitae so perhaps others with more experience can comment. If it was me and I had the cash and wanted instant gratification (block out neighbors for privacy), I would shell out for some larger emerald green arborvitae (smaragd). There is one nursery near me that sells them up to 12’ (about 4’ width at bottom), maybe more, but they arent cheap. They bring the larger smaragd in by rail from Oregon to Ohio (smaller sizes grown semi-locally, though I am just talking about one nursery, darby creek nursery). Ive planted Smaragd@ 42” center to center spacing and if I did it again, I would go 52” (minimum 48”) center to center. Yes you will be waiting a few years for them to finally touch, but in 10 years+/- (assuming you start out with 5-8 footers) they will look sweet (Im starting to get and embrace this “tree time” thing, too bad I cant go back in time and unplant a lot of trees lol). If you dont want to wait for the gap bw neighboring trees to close, plant them closer. One benefit of going with smaragd is that you will never need to prune them. Having said that, if others with more pruning experience say keeping nigra or techny to 6’ width and green at bottom ‘indefinitely’ is not a problem then go for it. And dont forget the other possibilities. I just mentioned techny and nigra bc I just so happened to have them. And Thuja occidentalis ‘DeGroots spire’ has not been mentioned either, though it grows taller. That will probably be more readily available locally than nigra or techny.

As far as your dual leader arborvitaes and cutting one off, the best time to do this was when the tree was smaller. Those leaders appear to go down to close to base of tree(ive got a degroots thats the same way). If you cut one leader partly off it will look funny and I dont think blending in with the rest of the tree given time is necessarily a given. If you cut one all the way off(cutting off half the tree minus the roots basically since those leaders appear to go down to close to base of tree), it will just look sparse on one side. It will have less green and thickness on the side that was touching the cut away “leader/trunk thingy”. Over time it will fill out until eventually it looks normal(or 99% normal, bottom may not be “completely flawless”), so this may be an option. On my Degroots spire, both “leaders/trunks whatever the heck you call them” go all the way to just above the ground. I came close to trying to use a shovel to turn 1 tree into 2 by splitting the tree down the middle (sharp shovel, kick hard as heck) but did not have the guts to go through with this idea. I think that was a good decision.

Nigras are readily available in this part of the world...

Notice references to 'Techny' being "broad-based" in hits on page I linked to above. Another concern with many of the non columnar selections - 'Nigra' for instance - will be lack of density as the plant ages. Or if environmental conditions are not optimal. This limitation will be carrying over from the parent species. Even certain narrow selections such as 'Fastigiata' can also become thin on many sites.

Hi splaker,

Sorry for the delay in replying.

I would look for T. o. 'American Pillar' next spring in the nurseries or even online this fall.

'American Pillar' is one of the Proven Winners™ and they are literally everywhere in the spring. Most of the Proven Winners you see are annuals or perennials, but they have broadened their line to include some trees, shrubs and conifers. I ordered some Proven Winners™ conifers via eBay last spring and I was very satisfied. They were generally <$10.00 for a 4" pot and since 'American Pillar' is a cultivar from 'Hetz Wintergreen' but it has denser foliage, it should provide a better screen and it will probably not grow quite as fast as 'Hetz Wintergreen'; that would be a plus as far as you're concerned, correct?

Many folks are afraid to plant smaller plants although a smaller plant will generally grow faster and outgrow a much larger plant since so much of a larger plants' root system is removed when the plant is dug and B&B (balled and burlapped) or the plant is so pot bound from being in the same pot for so many years that it takes forever to establish a large enough root system to support fast growth.

You will need to protect smaller plants with chicken wire or some other wire mesh to prevent the bunnies from getting them during the winter, but it shouldn't take more than 2 - 3 years to get big enough to stop protecting them (especially if the small plants are well-watered and given a dose of fertilizer in the spring). 'American Pillar' should grow with the same single-leader that its parent plant, 'Hetz Wintergreen', is known for.

Both 'Techny' and 'Nigra' have multiple leaders and will splay apart badly during a heavy snow event. I think the maintenance for either of these two cultivars is probably more work than you need to put into the plants; they are going to want to have multiple leaders so it will be a battle if you are trying to grow them with a single leader (and the plants won't be dense since that is not how the plant normally grows). The density of these plants is due to the multiple stems that come from the bottom of the plant.

Just my .01745891 (you know, devaluation of the dollar and all). LOL

(sorry for the long post and these are just my observations so your mileage may vary).

Mike

Proven Winners is a just a distributor. American Pillar arborvitae are sold by a whole slew of nurseries across the country, not just by Proven Winners.

Well Embothrium brings up a concern... that some varieties, including fastigiata, can thin out with age. I don't want this to happen as I am trying to create a thick privacy screen! Maybe smargd is the route I should go since they are sold everywhere up here and often on sale at decent prices... the 5 or 6 smargd I have are thicker than molasses

It seems sparseness developing - especially when and where conditions are not perfect - is characteristic of Thuja in general. And certain species may perhaps always open up regardless. So if you want a lingering solid appearance to your planting you will want to choose horticultural selections such as 'Smaragd' that appear to have superior density.

Embothrium, how tall do smaragd gets? I come across differing info. What I've seen around here is 12'+ - some even taller but the tall ones I've seen I am not 100% sure they are smaragd. A few doors down, definitely smaragd but those are about 10 to 12' - also how far apart should I plant centre to centre if I want to keep it solid?

Usually googling takes 20 seconds. If anyone can google the record smaragd in less than 20 minutes, all the power to you. I give up. Ive seen them easily 20’, probably 7-8’ at base.

One of the best features of 'Smaragd' is its consistency....in size/width and color. Rarely does one see them taller than 15' - 12-15' is standard, even for quite mature ones. And the width is typically 3-4' with a pretty even presentation from top to bottom (except for the very top). And almost always a deep rich green, even in winter. Honestly, I doubt anything 20'+ tall and 7-8' wide is a Smaragd. That sounds a lot more like 'Fastigiata'/'Pyramidalis'

I am embarassed as I have yet to meet an arborviate that I did not really, really like, but I was not aware of the Fastigiata/Pyramidalis. I dont think I have ever seen one for sale in Columbus, Ohio or I would have bought some. Having seen pics, it is #1 on my list, hopefully they can grow around here.

I saw what I thought were smaragd 3-4 years ago when I was even more of a conifer newb. I was in a moving car and they were a far enough away that they definitely could have been pyramidalis, especially if they were pruned more cylindrical to better match smaragd shape. Google image showed quite a few like this. Thus you are most likely correct gg, especially since I didnt even know of this tree at the time. Thanks for all the great info and suggestions you provide gg, GR8 stuff!

Are these very tall thujas picture above fastigiatas? They appear to have been sheared to look that neat..

Yes, and yes.

I took these pics today and was wondering if you can tell if these are smaragd or fastigiata/pyramidalis. I took it because when I saw them, I thought the tallest was pushing 20’. In looking at the pic, it does not appear to be pushing 20’. Im pretty sure they are smaragd, but not certain. Sorry for poor pics. Thanks.

Also someday when I visit where I used to live, I will take a pic of the “smaragd semi-circle of privacy” my neighbor built because he thought the people riding the bikes/running on treadmills at the ymca next door were spying on his wife. Yes, you can plant them at 1.5’ or less spacing and they will all be green with no browning. He wanted instant privacy screen and thats how he planted them lol.

Hi again! So I am about to execute my screening project and I have decided that given the space constraints and avaialabulity of plants, I am going to go with Smaragd. They are good looking, readily available and well behaved as they mature.. Our local Lowes has 6' for $30.. Cost effective, obviously...

So I have 25' or just a bit under to screen.. Should I buy 7 plants? I figure they grow about 3 to 4' wide.. How far should I plant them centre to centre?

Thanks!

the recommended spacing is 3 feet, but when I transplanted mine I reduced it to 2.5 feet & it looked much better, for some reason the 3 feet distance was way too wide. the ones that I didnt transplant with 3 feet inbetween them are still not touching after 6 years, while the ones with 2.5 feet between them already made a wall. hope this helps.