Please help! What kind is the the largest, yellowish cedar bush on the right? Can I cut it off about 12 inches from the ground and train/prune remaining branches to become the new bush? If there are rooted branches near the base, can I cut back down to these and let them become the new bush? Or should I just dig it out & replace with a seedling? Thanks!
All are Platycladus orientalis. If you need to be rid of it for some reason cut it down and grub it out. New ones can be inexpensively acquired in small pots at nurseries and other places that sell plants, it is a very common item.
Thanks for the replies. Does this have a 'common name'? I think digging it out will be best, but I am curious-- would such drastic "pruning" work or not? Would new branches form? It would probably be ugly for quite a while.
Most conifers do not sprout new growth from old wood, that is, wood that no longer has green needles. I think yews are the only family that does sprout from old wood, and as Ron says, this is not a yew! That means that if you cut it straight across at 12", you will end up with a bowl, as the interior is most likely dead but you will get new growth off the outer branches. Might look interesting! If you do have rooted side branches (probably that have layered themselves), you can indeed remove the main shrub entirely and let them grow into replacements. But I don't think these shrubs all that commonly layer themselves.
Chinese Arborvitae, though it is also often just known as 'Platycladus'. In older books you'll find it listed under the scientific name Thuja orientalis, but it isn't very closely related to the other species of Thuja so it was split off into a genus of its own.