Eastern Arborvitae in Craven County

— Written By Thomas Glasgow and last updated by Jami Hooper
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We’ve received a lot of e-mails and calls regarding arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) over the past year, and I’ve also noticed quite a few of them declining in home landscapes in the Craven County area. I believe the bulk of this is likely related to climatic adaptability and the stress of 2019’s exceptionally hot and dry growing season.

While Thuja ‘Green Giant’ seems to be very well adapted to Eastern North Carolina, it does have different parentage, being a hybrid between T. plicata and T. standishii. By comparison, T. occidentalis is rated as heat tolerant only as far south as Zone 7B by Gilman (Trees for Urban and Suburban Landscapes). Dirr’s Manual of Woody Landscape Plants suggests “Zone 3 to 7, but not vigorous in the South”. Craven County happens to be a very hot and humid Zone 8, and we don’t seem to be getting any cooler. My conclusion is that eastern arborvitae may be useful to a limited degree in our area, but it should not be planted in large numbers, and in particular should not be planted as the sole ingredient in a privacy screen. Single-species screens are high risk anyway, but some plants are riskier than others.

Pictured is a lower stem and root sample from a local arborvitae; it was subsequently shipped to the Plant Disease and Insect Clinic, which found no evidence of pathogen or insect damage. One problem easily seen in the image is planting depth. The red arrows indicate the depth at which the arborvitae was set at planting, while the fuchsia arrows indicate the approximate depth at which it should have been set, based on the emergence of a major root from a stem. Excessively deep planting contributes to the decline and failure of many landscape trees and shrubs, whether they are well-adapted to the locale or not.

Eastern Arborvitae