Growing juniper or cedar from cones?

[igneous]

Just moved into a new(er) house and there's a tree in front that looks like a cedar or juniper? not sure. Anyway, it has many of these hard dime-size berries or cones on it with little spikes on them. Would these grow if planted?
I know it would take a while since these are slow growing trees.
Thanks ;^) ~

[Newt]

Hi Igneous,

Congratulations on your new home! It would be best to first id which tree you have cones for. Photos of the cones and trees would be most helpful. With your description of 'berries', I suspect it's either arborvitae or juniper. You might find this site helpful.
http://gardenline.usask.ca/trees/cedarorjuniper.html

Here's a picture of the different cones.

California Juniper cone
http://mojavedesert.net/plants/shrubs/320-0487.jpg

Utah Juniper cones
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...er_cones_2.jpg

Male juniper cones
http://djringer.com/photos/d/5366-2/...male-cones.jpg

Female juniper cones/berries
http://djringer.com/photos/d/5070-2/...seed-cones.jpg

Juniper descriptions
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/helena/resou.../Juniper.shtml

Arborvitae cones
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/c...ges/Thuja9.htm

true Cedar cones - be sure to read about them too at this site.
http://z.about.com/w/experts/Seeding...edar-Cones.jpg

Propagation of cedar
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Seeding-P...cuttings-1.htm


You could do a google search for
juniper
cedar
arborvitae
and click on Images for pics to be sure which plants you have.

Newt

[igneous]

Think it may be the arborvitae, the leaves are thin and flat like the pic. I'll take a shot of it when I get home and compare. Anyway, can you use those
cones as seed?

[igneous]

Hopefully i uploaded this right....

[Newt]

I suspect you are correct that it's Arborvitae (known botanically as Thuja), probably a named variety of Northern White Cedar, which is actually in the cedar family. I say that because it looks like it was planted in the landscape and not found in the wild or just grew up there thanks to Mother Nature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuja_occidentalis

If you want to get exactly the same aspects of this plant (height, width, growth habit, color, etc), then you would do best to take cuttings and root those.
http://www.freeplants.com/arborvitae..._and_care_.htm

Newt

[igneous]

Thank Newt, I'll try cuttings. This is one of the many trees the previous owner planted. I'd like to put a line of these on the west side of the house to shade it. How tall do they get?

[Newt]

Igneous, you are so very welcome!

"How tall do they get?"

Without knowing which particular named variety, it's impossible to say. I would suggest you look to see if there is a plant tag attached to any of the limbs or call the previous owner to ask them. Arborvitae grow in different shapes, hues of color and sizes. Some can grow to 30' while others grow to 4'.

Here's some info on these trees. You can see by the links on the left that they come in different shapes and sizes. You might want to research which will be best for your purpose of a screen and plant those. How tall do you need them to grow?
http://www.aboutarborvitae.com/

You might find this diary helpful. I know this gal from an arborist forum we used to be on together. Sadly, the forum got so much spam it shut down.
http://www.treegrowersdiary.com/arborvitae.html

Newt

[igneous]

The one in the photo has grown almost a foot since we moved in. I'll have to get my tree shrub identifier book or ask our friend that does landscaping. I'd like to get 2 more, but I think I need something else. These will have low branches and tapers to small at the top, like in the link pic you sent.

I have a space about 8-10 feet from house to the fence, and I'd like something that grows fast but won't make a mess (ie. anything w/big leaves), as some of it will grow over the neighbors property and I don't want them complaining about it. It's an area that gets alot of water, as it has a gradient to provide runoff lane to curb. Any fast growing (evergreen if possible) you can think of?
Think I'll get another arborvitae tree and put it on the other side of the front of house to sort of 'frame' it and make it look symmetrical.
Thanks again for your advice.

[Newt]

Sorry I forgot to get back to you on this. I don't know where you live or what your hardiness zone is, so I can't make specific recommendations on what to plant between the house and the fence. You say the space is 8' to 10', but you don't say how wide the shrubs can grow and if you need room to walk there. There is a pyramidal form of Arborvitae that should work for a space such as this. The site I gave you about Arborvitae has info on them.

Be sure to plant so there is room enough for the shrubs width without hitting the fence. The shrubs will appreciate the air flow and there will be less chance of injury to the branches from hitting the fence on a windy day. If you need sites on how to plant, mulch and water just let me know.

Newt

[igneous]

I was looking for shade trees to plant, but looked at the area this past weekend and decided against it. There's just not enough room since I have to mow this area. I was thinking a fast growing shade tree that would grow 20-30' and shade roof. The arborvitae would make area inaccessible. Our master bedroom is what I'd like to get shaded. It gets alot of pm sun and just trying to find an easy way to shade it.