My answer would be NO! Tried both Atlas and Deodar down here in blackland prairie soil and neither species would grow. pH is around 7.5 and assume it must be too alkline for them or too clayey or too hot or too windy or too something. I'm tired of finicky exotic conifers that don't grow and am sticking to natives. Your location/zone wasn't listed, so of course where you're at it may be different. On the other hand, there may be a reason they are out of favor there also. There are a few in this area where pockets of different soil exist and these trees are attention-drawing as they get bigger. Actually more prevalent in the Texas hill country. However some Deodars have died at the tops. None of the smaller ones seems to be growing very fast.

I love my deodar but she looks pretty foolish. Mine came with the new house 20 years ago. She has tried to put on multiple tops her whole life. The large limbs droop under the heavy weight. We had one limb flip over another and then grow that way for years until it finally broke off. My tree is a weed in a fortunate spot at the end of the street and the edge of the lawn, dramatic. I would recommend that anyone planting such a large plant to buy a clone, a named plant if available. My two redwoods I planted are perfect specimens. I love my deodar but she is the silliest one I have seen. They may also we water hogs like redwoods, I don't know? Twenty years ago we worried about floods not water meters. Cones are so delicious the squirrels eat them in place.

Kim, your Cedar of Lebanon is awesome. It's happy and looks like it will be a most interesting shape, sort of a bit of every which way. I'm on a swamp which has an extremely high water table fall / winter but lately spring has gotten drier and summer is burning hot and dry dry dry. First batch of trees went in December 2005 so it's only been 1 year 7 months, and I keep adding, now only to replace something that didn't make it. Use sprinklers on timer hoses all night and hand-water with hose nozzle by day. It looks lush because of the ground cover, fleur de lawn aka ecolawn, comprised of dwarf perennial rye, strawberry clover, yarrow, alyssum, baby blue eyes, and english daisies. The slugs have eaten all the flowers though, but the main reason I used it is because it's excellent for erosion control, and when we did the yard from scratch in fall of 2005 there was nothing here but weeds and standing water, and we had to bring in 1000s of yards of 4-way-blend topsoil and horse manure and it kept getting washed away by rainstorms, so we had to bind the soil and shape the tree wells and get them to stay put. Anyway after next summer, the 3rd summer, supposedly the roots will have grown and the trees will be more established and I won't need to water so much. Yeah! Right now it's like having 300+ babies all needing coddling and fussing and continual attention and daily close vigilance. Oh, but in a few years, the jungle here will be gorgeous! Already got certified as wildlife habitat and have 24 bird stations around the house, very happy fat birds, really entertaining to watch. I'm a tree lover, been longing for trees, attuned to trees, pining for trees, my whole life, and finally have my own house and land, not nearly enough, where I can worship trees in total abandon. And a mature well-cared-for Cedar of Lebanon takes the prize!

I love your sweep of lawn bordered by the perennial bed and the pin oak is just beautiful! As others pointed out, it won't remain in scale with your home and yard ultimately, though- it seems like every tree grows to about twice its normal size here. And another large tree or two will have your home buried in gloom in time. I am no expert so others may nix this idea, but why not plant a nice dark green hedge along the boundary, arborvitaes maybe? And then in front of that, one or two japanese maples with good color that will show up against the green hedge? Many of them get beautiful fall color (I was originally from new England, myself, and I miss the beautiful autumn, too!) and then the bare branch pattern would be pretty in front of a hedge in winter as well. That would give you privacy and still let some sun shine in (when it is out, lol). You could fill out beneath them with shrubs and perennials.