Edit: Photo no longer exists We have several of these ghastly shrubs in the yard looking like pear shaped green meatballs. I discovered something this morning. The little whitish looking spots on them are actually flowers.
I guess since they have flowers that makes them a little more likeable We have a row of them about 20 feet long that provides privacy from the cul-de-sac. The snow we had the last 2 weeks left them kind of mashed and flattened. I think it will be a long time before I see any flowers on mine Deanna :-D
Arborvitae: I don't think it's a cedar. They are used for hedging here sometimes, but mostly planted one on each side of a front door and they grow until the entire front of the house is covered by two pear shaped green things. At my house they are scattered randomly around the yard. I have gotten one out so far. They are huge, so difficult to get rid of. And Katrina uprooted 400 yo oaks, but did the arborvitae get hurt? Noooooo. www.galbraithsinc.com for a look
Arborvitae??? We have several arborvitaes and they look nothing like that, they are a beautiful evergreens that can be pruned, shaped any way you choose...also had them in Pa. and they are the same as here in FL.
I did a google search for them and as a two word name it is part of the human anatomy, but as one word it is the tree....go figure. http://landscaping.about.com/od/evergre ... rvitae.htm They are part of the Cypress family. I think these are the ones I have seen the landscape guy on This Old House tell people they need to be gently tied together before snowfall or the branches will be spread out and possibly damaged.
We have two of the regular green ones and two gold tip ones that we planted last year. We planted them as dust shields along the front property line in that one spot. They grow fast and are thick. The gold tip ones are pretty. I haven't seen flowers. They do get little purple fruits in fall so they must have flowers, too. Dooley
I've never seen arborvitae flower - I'm wondering if these might be another, similar shrub thing? I've had plenty of people tell me I should just plant those to get the privacy I want in the back yard but I hate the things...
They indeed are. When I was still working and a client had two (they never had one....one on each side of the front door, remember), I use to make sure a chain saw got acquainted with them. When the client noticed they were gone, I told them a giant cockroach ate them. Same with euonymous and nandina. They all went to see jesus.
