Turkish Cedar

There's a beautiful mature specimen by the administration building at the Arnold Arboretum, Boston Z6a.

Cedrus libani is f...Read Moreamous as a specimen tree on great parks and estates. It's a magnificent, large evergreen tree that's wider than tall in maturity, with a flat top and stiffly horizontal branches. Mature trees can reach 100' tall and wide. Very picturesque.

It isn't clear to me whether var. stenocoma is actually hardier than the species (as it's often said to be) or if it's simply less subject to snow and ice breakage because its horizontal branches aren't as long.

Slow-growing. Needs full sun and good deep well-drained soil. Dirr gives its southern limit as Z7, at least on the east coast.

A pretty tree and tough enough to survive winter in southern Michigan. I planted one of these along with a couple Cedrus deodara varietie...Read Mores that are supposed to be zone 5 hardy. The Cedrus deodara varieties survived but the stenocoma did not. I know these will grow here but need to be sited properly to do well.

This is the first growing season for my plant in the ground. It has grown 20" so far. I am sure it slows down as it gets older. I rece...Read Moreived the plant as a 3' plant, now its close to 5'.

update March 2011* It was a rough winter for a first year tree. The leaves all browned but the stems all appear healthy. Snow is not good on young trees on a sunny day, really burns them up. I would advise wrapping first year trees with burlap to protect leaves from drying out. Antidescicants do not provide much protection. Once the plants have been established after a couple years they should take natures wrath a lot easier.

*May 2011 After a couple months of watching the plant do nothing it turns out it was unfortunately dead and needed removal. I had a lot of issues with evergreen plants I sprayed with antidesicants. I followed instructions per the package and waited even longer for the plants to go dormant but not spray when the temps were freezing. One week into cold weather, everything I sprayed it with pretty much fried. Use burlap.

According to Dirr a tree has survived low temps of -24F in Cincinatti, OH with only leaf burn.

The trees are beautiful but this is really an inquiry about Zone 5 hardiness. Are the two trees on the Purdue University Campus the sten...Read Moreocoma subspecies? I'd like to plant some on a sandy hillside a few miles up the Wabash River.