Spiral Cedar

I would like to know how to spiral a conical cedar shrub to plant in a pot for my entryway front door

Bonita

 

Done with pruning. You have to learn how get that effect yourself. Not the kind of thing easily taught on a venue like this.

 

any books or sites on the subject that any one could recommend?

Bonita

 

Maybe try searching "formal topiary", see if that leads anywhere. I think I have seen a book in shops with a bunch of these on the cover recently.

 

This website has a photo of a spiral-pruned cedar:

http://www.pruningspecialties.com/Page2.html

 

Bonita--just a couple hints on these.

Select cedars with single stems (these are actually the "rejects" from a hedging standpoint, where you like to see multiple stems for nice dense hedge). Pot it now into at least a 7 gal. container.

Then wrap a cottony string/twine around the shrub to mark where the spiral is to be, and start pruning away branches between the spiral of twine, leaving the "bump" of foliage under the twine. This is the one labor intensive pruning, followed by continual minor trimming thru the growing season to come...you should have a pretty decent looking spiral by the following spring or summer.