Three questions: 1. Is this a Western Hemlock or an Eastern Hemlock? (There was some confusion when I bought it; I presume and hope it's a Western Hemlock.) 2. What is the best way to tell the difference between heterophylla and canadensis when the tree is immature, like mine? 3. My little hemlock seems to be growing very well. However, in a recent windstorm the lead shoot of the crown broke off (see picture #3). Is it likely to re-grow its characteristic droopy lead shoot? Thank you in advance for your answers!
That's Western, T. heterophylla. You can tell T. canadensis by its 'drier' looking foliage, with, very characteristically, a line of a few needles lying flat "up-side-down" (showing the wite underside, up; pic) along the top of the shoots. In T. heterophylla, the needles on the top of the shoot don't lie flat like this, or only very few do so. Yes, it'll replace the broken leader and regain its normal shape. Might not be to next year, though.
Thank you, Michael F, for your helpful response. I appreciate it. Another question to you or anyone else: are deer likely to eat my Western hemlock if I don't protect it with a screen? (Deer are rampant in my neighbourhood.)
Can't help with that - deer often have local (or even individual) preferences, and what they eat in one place isn't always the same as what other deer eat.
It is an important browse species for deer, so possibly. It may depend on the level of terpenoids in your individual tree whether it is considered tasty (or more accurately, "not bitter, and therefore edible").
This is anecdotal evidence, but I have found that deer haven't touched my hemlocks while they have decimated other things. Thanks Michael F for telling us how to tell apart the eastern vs. western hemlocks. I wondered if the upside down whitish needles were normal on mine.....
Another identifier is the needle sizes. On heteroplylla, they are of varying sizes, think hetero in the species name, whereas the canadensis has relatively uniform needles. The cones are different between the two species as well.
