Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Instant Gratification With Thuja Green Giants

By Scott Bailey


If you need a dense privacy hedge, an attractive windbreak, or a formal border along your drive or boundary line, there is the perfect answer in a new hybrid ornamental. Thuja Green Giants are perhaps the fastest growing of the cypresses. With a graceful and amazingly uniform shape, a growth rate of up to five feet a year, and exceptionally beautiful foliage, this marvel is also virtually care free.

Planted a minimum of five or six feet apart, these giants grow so uniformly and so fast that they soon form an unbroken line of green. Their uniformity gives them a formal look which requires no shaping. As a privacy hedge they are unequaled, and A tall procession of thujas along an estate drive has to be seen to be appreciated.

These vigorous evergreens need space to grow, although being in a row limits their height to about twenty feet and their width to about eight. As a single specimen, they can tower higher than a house and spread twenty-five feet around. They should be planted at least four feet from the property line or a fence, and not closer than fifteen feet to a septic field. Their roots will spread a little farther than the tree itself.

People love these trees, which are hybrid evergreens in the cypress family. They are arborvitae trees, a name which may be more familiar than thuja. They adapt to almost any soil, even sandy loam or clay, and require no fertilizer (you may choose to fertilize lightly on planting). They never need spraying, since they are resistant to most bugs - even bagworms - and diseases. They are heat resistant but do best when watered once or twice a week in hot, dry weather. Grown from cuttings, the trees are remarkably uniform in height, width, and shape.

A dense row of these trouble-free evergreens provides privacy and protection from the wind. It also is an effective noise barrier. If you live in a high traffic area and want to grow vegetables, a hedge like this will shield your yard from up to 90 percent of heavy metals from air pollution.

They are bred from native trees, so deer don't particularly like them. They are hardy to minus 20 degrees F, escape most damage from heavy snowfall, and grow well in zones 5 to 9. There are planting recommendations based on your zone, so be careful to plant them at the right time of year for Georgia. Check online to see sizes, prices, shipping costs, and tips on growing thujas.

By buying direct from a grower, you may find both the best price and the most vigorous trees. Ones sold in containers are advertised as better than ones with burlap-wrapped root balls or sold as 'bare root'. The size of the container caries from nursery to nursery; a six-foot tree can come in a one gallon pot or a seven gallon one. Buying multiple trees cuts the price down, and some sites offer free shipping.

Of course, you can save big if you find a local grower and can pick stock up. But it's true that you can have trees taller than you shipped to your door. In three or four years you can have a magnificent, green, living barrier to whatever you'd like to keep out.




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