I spaced my AP 26” off my back fence - I am working in a tightly spaced garden bed so I really hope that is enough space for them to grow properly!!!

Have 8 small APs planted this spring in Zone 8. We had a nice long, wet and (for our area) cool spring which gave them a nice long runway to get initially established. But that seems to be over and summer is coming on fast and strong.

I think we're pushing it in zone 8 - our summers can be hot and dry. But I want to give them every chance to succeed this year especially when they are young.

What's best advice for watering young APs when the heat of the summer comes on? should I be out there every day? week? to make sure they don't get burned in the heat? How much water should I be putting on them when the weather turns dry?

My yearly update. These are 7 years old trees. This is the thickest part of my hedge. Most of my trees have shiny trunks where the trunk failed to grow branches making them look more sparse. the pics are too up close, i cant go farther back as my driveway is quite narrow. the 2nd pic is the brighter version.

What is your zone? Is there full sun? Thinking of replacing emeralds.

@enjay2014 - Thanks for the update. My 35 APs planted last year are so far doing well - about 2.5ft average - tallest one is 3ft. Hope to see them grow. I am thinking of doing second row of them later this year in fall.

2021 update. These have been planted for 2 years now! Some are almost as tall as the fence!

@Sabrina138, I just want to share my Emerald & American Pillar standing side by side each other. While the AP has the fast growth height advantage it doesnt have the dense foliage that the Emerald has. I was after the height so I moved all my emeralds further down in front. its in zone 7a. this area is full sun.

Thank you Enjay2014.

4 year update. They all started as 6-10”. The tallest one is about 7 feet at the tip. 2 or 3 of the shorter ones I had to replace after the first year or two. And some just don’t get as much sunlight as others - especially the ones on the right. Otherwise they’re doing well and growing nicely. Fence is 6 feet tall.

2021 - November

2017 - September

Planted a row of these about a year ago - wasn't careful and we had an extraordinarly dry winter this year and got some winter burn on them or bronzing.

Do y'all know when they should green up again?

FYI - they did green right back up in the spring.

Unfortunately, we've had unrelenting record heat all summer long - no breaks, and even though I have water on them, the triple digit temps day after day after day week, after week after week has been just too much for them. They're all browing out severly. I have shade cloth over them and everything - and they're just dying.

Maybe they'll recover in the fall? It's frustrating, last summer they did fine. But this year has been just awful.

Looks like I'm probably going to need a Plan B though for a narrow, fast growing, hedge.

A lot of plants are severely stressed this year from the heat. Mine are about 4–5 years old now but the younger they are the more watering they need on hot days. A few of my trees, the ones that get the most sun, are browning/goldening a bit but I’ve been watering them and giving them water baths around sunset.

Yours should recover but give them a lot of water in summers like these at the base and cooling baths as well. It’s probably the norm now unfortunately.

July 2022 update. Taller ones planted in 2013 and shorter ones to the right in 2017. No weather related issues since i planted them. Love them!

Below photo was from July 2020.

Ken - those look so good - exactly what I was hoping for. I'm so bummed mine didn't make it. I feel like I needed one more normal summer to get established and would have done fine. . .frustrating.

Ive been wanting to do an 8th year anniversary update in June but Ive been busy with my backyard hardscapes. Anyway the project is almost done with a row of American pillars as the back drop. This is the half-day sun part of the yard & it also shows a different kind of American Pillar. The small tree on the big concrete planter has the trunk of the American Pillar but the top of a cypress grafted together. I like how straight AP's trunk looks so I tried to make a lollipop out of it. So hopefully in the future it will keep growing to a beautiful new specimen. its now 3 years old growing in a pot, just transplanted in its big spot so its just starting to grow. Pls dont judge this might be offensive to some people.

Are folks still happy with their AP arborvitae? My wife and I are deciding between them and the Emerald Greens. Our landscaper warned that the fast growing APs will be more prone to cracking. Anyone experience that? Also curious how folks feel about the density of foliage - some of the pictures looked a bit sparse but others didn’t.

Very happy with ours. They are on the sparse side in the early years but thicken up from bottom to top as the years go on.

Hi Ken, I noticed you planted the AP on slope. Did you add a berm for each to help with water retention? What is your gardening zone snd trick to your success?

I planted 18 this year @ 3 feet apart just this fall. I noticed some tips browned slightly. Fid uou have the same experience?

Danny, no berm, just kept them watered well in the beginning. Zone 7a here, central Maryland.

The only brown tips i see are on the inner branches but thats normal in the fall similar to a pine tree. As i recall the younger plants don’t normally do this. They should be fine. Next year you should see nice growth.

Thanks Ken! I love what you did with your privacy screen and many others on this group.

Gene G, cracking? as in the trunk cracks & breaks in half? no! Bowing is more what happened. But only on the side with the half-day sun. It seems that the soil doesnt dry up as fast as the ones on the full-sun side. at year 4 or 5 two of my AP's bowed due to the moisture retention & the heavy wind that made it bow. I just put big paver or rock support at the bottom to straighten it. since then nothing more happened.

with the sparse foliage issue, I have a feeling that if you start with a very good specimen youll have a dense growth down the road. If you have a garden center that carries grown AP's then youre in luck. If youre closeby Maryland theres a garden center call PATUXENT nursery that carries AP's in big gallons pots that are about 3-4 feet tall with very dense foliage. It also came with a bigger price tag around $70. I started with newly rooted specimens & a lot are really sparse. so hopefully you find a garden center with grown AP's.

Hi, I wanted to share how mine AP are doing. I am very happy with their speed. I planted 7, and the ones growing the best get 4 hours of direct sun. The ones on the left get a bit less and would be closer to hackberry tree roots. Fence is 7’.

May 15, 2021 when first planted

After 4.5 months, Oct 1, 2021

Then these are 15.5 months after planting. Sept 1, 2022.

My taller APs did not like the heavy, wet snow in the NE. Brushed em off, assuming they’ll be fine…

@1818 Federal (7BEC) Do you cut the entire competing leader off or so you just cut it back below the other leader? Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone. I love how everyone comes back to give updates on your trees! This has been the most useful information I've found on APs. I am ordering about 15 for my property, debating between quart pots or gallon pots. I might do a mix of sizes. Do you have your trees on drip or just rain water?

If you want a shorter one this is it {thin man arborvitae}

Hi! new to the thread and learning so much! we bought 30 AP’s from GreatGardenPlants.com last Fall and followed the psacing recommendations on the brand’s site — Full Speed A Hedge, which was 2.5 ft apart. in reading everyone’s recommendations, I’m worried this is too close and we should have done 3 ft. Should/Could we move them? theyre currently around 3 ft tall, i would think Fall (we’re Zone 7 in VA) would be the right season, just unsure if they would survive a move.

2.5 is just rught if you want a tighter wall look. years ago i spoke tk family in georgia and they said 2.5 was the sweet spot.

Hello. Congrats on your new APs!

When I emailed the people who now run the original nursery in Georgia back in 2019 , this was their reply:

"We recommend the 3 to 3.5 feet spacing. The original owner spaced them 2 feet apart, but the insides were browning, and they were too crowded, so the agricultural extension service suggested we space them further apart. They may produce a screen quicker at 2 feet apart, but it won’t be as healthy and there could be problems down the road. They will fill in at 3 or 3.5 feet and make a full screen in time."

But I honestly think either 2.5 or 3 feet is fine, as various people on here are happy with both.

Mine are 3 feet, and they will take longer to fill in as a screen on the upper portions. Sometimes I wish I had done 2.5 feet (or better yet, staggered them) because I have a deck and will have to patiently wait a few more years for the upper portions to block my view. But I am still delighted with how much they have grown since 2019.

Anyway, I, personally, would not run the risk of transplanting them at this stage unless they were 2 feet or less apart.

Its been 9 years since I planted these! I noticed a slow down in growth, attributed partly to age, also to the size of the lot theyre planted on. This is a 10 feet strip between the neighbor's & my driveway. theres not enough space for the roots to spread out since I noticed that instead of going deep the roots grow wider. most of these trees also suffer from shiny trunk where parts of tree dont have foliage. the less dense trees were originally 6-inch plants in 2014, the denser ones were a foot tall. so if you are deciding whether to get a shorter vs a taller one get the taller 1, its a huge difference, due to the aggressive nature of the roots, the smaller ones get beaten up a lot. its also better to get 1 from a local garden center if its available closeby your place, youll end up with a healthier & denser tree surely. Mine were all bought from hirts.com so its a hit or miss - mostly misses - only around 6-8 were dense enough out of 40+.

Would you say you are happy with them or do you think you would have preferred a different cultivar?

I would have gone with any that fits the bill: narrow, fast growing & full, but as Ive posted before in this thread, this was a replacement of the 40+ emerald arborvitaes I planted first on this spot in 2013. AP's were the first one promoting these characteristics back in 2014 that I was looking for to replace my emeralds. Emeralds are just too slow to grow to 15 or 20 feet.

Im very happy on the narrow & the fast growth side, about 70% satisfied with the foliage side. but as other posters have shown, you can find specimens that are denser in nature. Ive seen them in a garden center too last year & they look much fuller than what I got. mine mightve just come from a not so healthy mother AP + my inadequate yard area.

Hi everyone, I’ve seen a few posts about where to affordably purchase these in bulk. i know everyone has a different idea of affordable, but GreatGardenPlants.com has them now for 19.99 each with a discount for the more you purchase. We bought 32 of them last year, most were around 3 ft tall at the time and have grown a foot. Only 3 died which i felt good about seeing as how i only put a few weeks of ”extra watering” into them when we put them in the ground. Otherwise I've done very little maintenance, no soaker hoses, no sprinkler systems, and theyre in full/partial sun.

That's where we bought ours a couple of falls ago! A couple got nibbled by deer the first year but all 16 are alive and well so far.

They have a great Fall warranty, til May of the next year! highly recommend. they refunded the few that died.

thank you so much for sharing this photo of American Pillar Arborvitea. I have a narrow path between my neighbor and I'm thinking these would be good. Can you tell us how yours are doing? Any pests or weather issues?

Its my AP's 10th year!! I think Ill have to end my yearly update for now as theres not much change thatll happen. If theres anything that changes in the future Ill post again. Last week I trimmed the lower 4 feet about more than a foot off, as its eating up precious space on my narrow side yard. then a few days later it exploded with fruit/seeds from top to bottom, thats why it looks yellow green in the pict. maybe not due to the trim but more likely the warm weather. the other side AP's werent as abundant.

Something that I did back in 2014 when I just planted were to dig out all suckers & secondary leaders from all plants, leaving just a single trunk growing. they all looked like bamboo stalks at that stage . if your area doesnt get much snow & if you can risk the trees unravel from heavy snow load then dont remove them as they can help make the trees look fuller & dense. I gave 16 suckers to my neighbor, planting them in 2016 thats the 2nd pict. theyre growing really nicely from what i can see on the other side of the fence.

other than that i hope all your AP's will become much fuller than what i have. I didnt have any problems with them & their fast growth is amazing.

I've been looking at this thread for so many years, I guess it's time to contribute lol.

We planted ours in early October, 2021. So 2 years and 9 months ago. Michigan, zone 6. They are on a slope and they get sun most of the day. We have clay soil and heavy winds.

They haven't grown quite as fast as I'd have hoped but they've all looked healthy since we planted them, no issues. I watered them pretty regularly the first year or so but now just once in a while. The tip of tallest tree is around 5 feet now. They were 12-18" when we planted them. I'm obviously hoping they'll screen the window into our living room.

I've been looking at this thread for so many years, I guess it's time to contribute lol.

We planted ours in early October, 2021. So 2 years and 9 months ago. Michigan, zone 6. They are on a slope and they get sun most of the day. We have clay soil and heavy winds.

They haven't grown quite as fast as I'd have hoped but they've all looked healthy since we planted them, no issues. I watered them pretty regularly the first year or so but now just once in a while. The tip of tallest tree is around 5 feet now. They were 12-18" when we planted them. I'm obviously hoping they'll screen the window into our living room.

I’m in serious struggle with American Pillar vs Emerald Green, this thread has proved the fast growth rate claims are legitimate but that the advertised density seems to be false for most. I like the density of Emerald but the growth rate of AP, I’d even think a variety with a growth rate, density, and mature height halfway between the two would be perfect for me. Does anyone have any knowledge of someone pruning these as a hedge and then filling in better? Maybe they grow too quickly to be maintained as hedges for your average homeowner? Sucks to wait 10 years for Emerald greens to reach the height and American Pillar would in 3-4.

Hi all. They are building a development behind my house. Does anyone recommend the American Pillars to plant for privacy? The Emerald Greens seem a bit slow. Thanks!

Fast = big from the nursery = get a guarantee = $$$$. The pillars are faster than the emeralds, but not as thick. They make a good hedge though. Keep in mind the top 3rd is always sparse, so if they’re 8 feet you have about 5.5 of hedge. Where do you live. Not sure I’d do pillars in the heavy snow, and with that burnt out grass you’ll need to water them to establish through the hot spells.

Thanks ML. I am in Northeast PA. Yeah we had a hot summer last year. But I would probably do some watering this year

First photo - May 2021

Second - Sept 2022 - 1y3m

Third - 2023 - 2 years

Fourth - Oct 2025 - 4y4m

SW Ontario

Get sun for a few hours.

I clear the snow off them if it an excessively heavy wet snow, as I do with any of my conifers

Purchased from Field2Home in the Greater Toronto area.

Thanks, Teresa! Beautiful trees! I love seeing these posts. Your earlier one- and two-seasons’ growth post and Ken’s many posts were the most encouraging when we decided to plant one hundred 18-in tall Pillars this May in USDA zone 5.

We didn’t quite get the impressive growth you did your first season but we have gotten over 18 inches of new growth on many plants. They definitely exceeded our cautious expectation of one year each of “sleep, creep, and leap”!

We have been following this thread since about July 2024, and really wish we had found it before we first planted our arbs as we would have done things differently.

Teresa’s update today (thanks! thought this thread was dead) show some of the best photos we have seen so far as they provide a good idea of both growth rate and growth habit. Getting a sense of scale from a person standing in each photo is very helpful.

We planted 36 AP 12”-18” arbs in April 2024, and spaced them 28” apart (too close). We moved one of the arbs (at the end of a row) in October 2024, and it still has not recovered from the transplant shock (!) so we will just keep the other plants where they are.

We recorded height for all our arbs on 9/15/2024 and again on 9/15/2025. As expected there is a direct correlation to the amount of daily sun the plants receive and their growth rate (both up and out). Below are data for four different arbs:

daily sun / 9-15-24 ht. / 9-15-25 ht. => growth

8.2 / 27” / 44.5” => 17.5” (just sad)

10 / 29” / 59.75” => 30.75” (spindly)

12 / 19” / 34” => 15” (transplant shocked)

23 / 39” / 73.5” => 34.5” (bushier)

Daily sun units are mols/m^2/day. The tallest arbs are also some of the bushiest, while those that receive less than 10 units of sun/day are spindly. Cincinnati had a very sunny summer 2025 (zone 6b), so the sun numbers are fairly consistent between measurements (and they jive with expectations).

Note that all the plants received water via a soaker hose once or twice a week, depending on the soil conditions, and we treated them as equally as possible.

If anyone is interested, there are two models that measure daily sun:

Aquahorti VR20 (has display, 0.1 resolution, 10 day history only)

Vabira VBR20 (no display, bluetooth only, 0.001 resolution, 180 day history)

They are both made by the same company, and no, we are not affiliated with the company. I just wish they could be bought somewhere other than amazon.com. If anyone finds a non-amazon source, please post it.

photo from 7/5/2025. This string mostly gets blasted by sun (around 23), except for the two in the forground which get shaded by the house in the afternoon.

The arbs at the back fence only get between 8 and 10 units of sun per day.

I planted 12 APs a couple weeks ago in what recently became Zone 5 Minnesota. I still try to think of it as Zone 4, because although our winters have gotten shorter, it still gets -30 pretty much every winter.

I was trying to decide between the AP and Taylor Junipers. I went with the AP because they were quite a bit cheaper, but now after reading these posts I'm second-guessing my decision.

These pictures of everyone's APs look sparser than I was expecting. My spot gets about 10 hours of sun a day, and they are in a spot that's a PITA for me to water often. People here are saying the APs aren't drought tolerant which is contrary to what garden center websites say. The Taylor Junipers definitely would need less water and would love all that sun.

These APs will also get plenty of snow since this is Minnesota. Hopefully they don't bend too bad.

Oh well, it's done now, we'll see how they do.

Brent,

HU-486030199 here (name is John, but you can call me “Hey You 99”. Don’t know how to change the user name houzz assigned me.)

We had never heard of Taylor Juniper before, but those would have been perfect for the sunnier location in our yard. Where were you two years ago?

Like you, we are concerned about the foliage density. From most of the photos I have seen, they appear to provide decent privacy once they are 10+ years old., but it would be really helpful if someone from this thread with older AP’s could provide feedback on this. Can you see your neighbors through mature AP foliage? What about mature AP’s in less than ideal (sunny) locations?

All but two of our AP’s were planted in early spring. Two were planted in late fall 2024 and I fretted all winter whether they would survive. They survived just fine, but our winter low was -4 F for just a day or two.

Perhaps if your AP’s don’t survive this winter you can take it as a sign from the gods to plant junipers. They seem expensive, but look at it this way: people barely flinch when they shell out $40K+ for a kitchen remodel, but for some reason spending $1000 on their backyard seems high, even though the long term payback may be greater.

Here are some photos to show the growth of our trees from May 15-Oct 18th of their first year. We ordered 100 18 inch trees from fast-growing-trees.com. I called two local nurseries first, but they didn’t have sizes that fit our budget. I later regretted not ordering from greatgardenplants instead as I’ve seen some plantings ordered from them that started out more lush.

The trees came flat packed, 10 to a box, all the way from South Carolina to Illinois. The boxes were 2’x2’. You can see two (very green) ones typical of the order next to my men’s size 12 shoe for scale, and you can see 50 of them shaded on our porch waiting for the second day of planting. None measured more than 24 inches, with most around 18 inches. Those taller than 18 inches were arched back to fit in the box.

Only a handful had a double leader. I decided to leave pruning those for next year. All appeared largely free of disease except one that I pulled a single bagworm off. I am monitoring the tips of some for dieback— but that may be due to stress, not pest. I did spray them with bacillus thuringiensis in September as a precaution.

Returning to the photos, you can see a few snaps of them recently planted— one after a hailstorm the day of planting and another within a week of planting.

I wished I paid more attention to which sides appeared to have faced the sun at the nursery, because I felt that some of them may have been burned by the sun after I planted them in another orientation.

When I noticed the sun stress in the first month, I got them all on a soaker hose (four zones). They greened up again.

I also wished I was as aggressive massaging free the roots with the first ones I planted as I learned to be by the end.

Finally there are some shots showing the height of some of the tallest trees at the end of the season. Still pretty spindly!

Perhaps I should have included photos of ours as well, showing one-year growth:

note the soaker hose in the photo 1 (zoom in). Our region experienced droughts in 2024 and 2025, so watering was a must. We even had to water our plants that survived through decades of neglect. The arbs grew significantly in the last year, although not as much as Teresa's. The fence in the background is 48" tall, for scale.

If you want your arbs to grow, water them.

These arbs are in full sun (they receive 23 mols/m^2/day of light, per that sunlight meter I mentioned earlier).

Note that arb 12 (from the left) was damaged from a buck rubbing against the trunk on November 11, 2024. It sprouted two leaders this year which have since both grown taller than the fence. We left the dead leader just for the built-in measuring stick. Both leaders surpassed the dead leader.

Now I am going to say something controversial that may bunch some panties.. I did not cut one of the leaders. My theory is: this happens in nature, why should I know better than the arb? Plants growing two leaders happens often, as one of our maple trees. Besides, it is by far the bushiest arb we have.