With it’s elegant texture, beautiful green needles and fast growth, Cryptomeria is valued as a landscape plant. Plants prefer sunnier locations and good drainage. This plant also gets BIG and some older plants have reached 40 feet tall and 20 or more feet wide so make sure you have the space for it’s spread.
Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce
Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce holds it’s bright blue color throughout the year and exhibits an unusual tolerance for heat and drought once established. As it’s name implies, it is a fatter cultivar and is great for adding this unusual color and texture to southern landscapes.
Full sun to partial sun locations are ideal and care must be given to keep this plant from getting too dry during long droughts. Home and Garden Landscapes grows this cultivar and highly recommends it for inclusion in the landscape.
Green Giant
Green Giant is a great choice for evergreen screening on properties that have the room for it’s wide spread. From full-sun to partial shade, this coniferous evergreen is hard to beat. Created by crossing Leyland Cypress and Western Red Cedar, this unique plant combines some of the positive attributes of both of its parents while leaving behind some of the negative traits of Leyland Cypress.
Green Giant is fast-growing with a strong root system which eliminates the problem Leyland Cypress has with its tendency to blow over in storms and heavy ice and snow. The plants inherited the uniformity of the Western Red Cedar and are more tolerant of bag worms which plaque Leyland Cypress as well.
After its introduction, deer and bag worms largely left Green Giant alone. Reports are now coming in that indicate the deer are warming up to the taste of Green Giants and some trees have been affected by bagworms, particularly if they are stressed.
That aside, it is a great screening plant and we highly recommend you consider it if you have the room. Trees can spread 10 or more feet in width at the base and can easily reach 30 foot plus tall.
