We have two ornamental cedars at our front stairs. They are probably well over 50 years old and are over 35' high, but generally conical, with some splaying from snow fall - we need to tie them up. They are blocking walking on the sidewalk around from the side of the house. We want to limb up the cedars to about 6'6", so people can walk on the sidewalk. When is a good time of year to do this? Will the trees be hurt by this?
Re: limbing up ornamental cedars Columnar Thuja occidentalis cultivar. When you clear away the bottom branches will not matter, the only problem is the trees will then look like popsicles on sticks. An alternative is to move the walks.
Re: limbing up ornamental cedars Unfortunately the existing walkway along the side of the house and around to the front delineates the property line, so moving it is not feasible. If we were to make a new walkway on the other side of the house, it would be further away from the front steps, the laundry room door (under the porch), the W side door (basement suite) and the back S cement patio. There is a large Acer palmatum 'Osakazuki' which you can see the edge of in the second photo which turns a beautiful red in the fall for all those people driving along 10th Avenue. Maybe it is time for the 2 Thuja occidentalis to be cut down and just leave the Acer... This is the front, N, yard of the house.
Re: limbing up ornamental cedars That would also solve the splaying open under snow loads, which may otherwise soon result in them breaking apart anyway.
As Ron points out, they are Arborvitae Thuja occidentalis, not cedars Cedrus at all. Agree, probably time to think about replacing them.
