Atlantic White Cedar

I first saw this species at the Philadelphia Flower Show in March of 2011 in a naturalistic, even wetland, landscape designed by Romero's...Read More Landscaping from southern New Jersey. The trees were about 20 to 25 ft high in the exhibit, of which I posted photos. I finally saw this species in the wild when I went on a kayaking trip to the pine barrens of southern New Jersey, renting from a company called Mick's Canoe & Kayak Rental. It was the most common tree along the large creek, which had its clean water stained dark brown by the leaching of chemicals from these trees along its course. There are repots that this species can do well in regular landscapes in moist or draining wet soils. There are a number of cultivars developed from this species also. The Japanese Falsecypress and Hinoki Falsecypress are the two species used so much in eastern and midwestern landscapes. It would be nice to get this native species used more.

I do not grow this tree, but it is prized for it's durable wood and is grown as an ornamental also.

Found naturally in wet...Read More, boggy soils and swamps from Central Maine to North Florida and west to Mississippi.

The wood was prized for log cabins by the Pioneers and during the Revolution, the wood produced charcoal for gunpowder.

There is a grove of Atlantic White Cedars preserved at Greenbank State Forest in southern New Jersey.