Hello everyone. My husband asked me to find a forum to ask other people what we should do about the cedars in our back yard. The older ones are devoid of needles in the middle. The newer ones seem O.K. but do not seem to grow. In the spring we have flooding because our earth is really mostly clay. I have heard that flooding is bad for cedars, but we really don't know what to do about it. When I walk behind our house (there is a waling and bike path), I look at other people's cedars, and they usually look very good. I would think they also have clay. Is there a simple solution?
Re: Cedars in the Montreal area Can you post some photos? Compare against the pics in e.g. this thread. I'd be very surprised to see any cedars at all in Montreal, except perhaps for the very hardiest sources of Turkish Cedar, they won't be winter hardy there.
Re: Cedars in the Montreal area When I figure out how to post a photo on the forum, I will do so. Meanwhile, in the Montreal area, there are zillions of cedars, and most of them look very good - except ours! I have no idea what kind of cedars we have except that I know that the new small ones are different from the bigger ones. Anyhow, if someone can tell me how to post a photo, I will.
Re: Cedars in the Montreal area O.K. I think I just attached a photo. I will see if this works. You can see the newer small cedars to the left. The picture was taken 3 years ago, and they seem to be about the same size. The bigger one to the right (and there are a lot like that one) is very sparse.
Re: Cedars in the Montreal area Thanks for the pics; that accounts for it, they're not cedars at all, but arborvitae. In this case, I'd say the poor, sparse growth is due to their being heaviy shaded by the tree (probably a Silver Maple) to the left. Same goes for the pine just in front of them, that too is suffering badly from lack of sunlight.
Well I'll be darned!!! All this time we thought they were cedars. Is it just the big sparse ones that are arborvitae or are the small ones also? We figured it was too shady, and yes you are right that it is a silver maple that is shading everything. We even had it trimmed a few years ago to see if more sunlight would come through. The thing is, even though it is like a weed, we like it!! I guess we are going to have to decide which we want more. Thanks for the info.
Both the large and the small. It's an unfortunately common error to call them 'cedars'. Here's what cedar foliage and cones look like, for comparison:
