Help to find the right tree

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

I want to plant some trees or large shrubs poolside and only have about 24" between coping and fencing. Fence is 6'ft tall. Have a giant Emerald Arborvitae at one end of the pool. Need something that won't send roots to far toward the pool so would have to be tall and slender. Prefer evergreen. Think it's possible to let Arborvitae grow tall and keep slender to keep root structure narrow? Restored landscape is to be simple, clean and some Asian flair.

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

6 years ago

trees rarely .. if ever.. interfere with intact pipes ... and crikey.. i hope all your pool pipes are intact ... if you dont ... you have other problems ... and you dont mention what kind of pool we are dealing with .. cement pond as jethro used to say .... or what might be called soft sided .... in ground or not????

imo .. you will get a lot further.. if you post a couple pix ...

we just went thru this in the fall ... i will see if i can find the old post ...

see link on slender arb ... you can locate them using the full latin name .... you usually wont find them at bigbox .... but they arent all that rare ...

ken

Thuja occidentalis 'Degroot's Spire' .. one trick will be to insure single leader plants.. and maintain them that way .....

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Thuja+occidentalis+%27Degroot%27s+Spire%27&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images

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Comments (8)

mindshift
6 years ago
Just because a tree is tall and slender does not mean its roots are short. Even trees with tap roots have most of their roots spreading well beyond their drip edge. While THIS article is about roots getting into sewer pipes it is just as applicable to any other container of water.
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
6 years ago
mindshift's comments are very accurate - the spread of a tree's roots has little to nothing to do with its profile or canopy spread. If anything, the spread is more closely aligned with the height of the tree, but even that is not much of an accurate indication. The roots will spread as far as they need to in order to access nutrients and moisture from the soil.

However, arborvitaes are not known for having aggressive roots. That's one reason they are often used in some very tight places and frequently immediately adjacent to structures. They are unlikely to lift or crack pool coping nor are they inclined to damage a structurally sound inground pool (or house foundation). And because they are a needled evergreen, they are not a bad choice for poolside planting, as litter is minimal.

I have to chuckle a bit at the "giant" Emerald arborvitae. Nothing "giant" about this selection at all!! Generally will only grow to 12-15' in height........maybe as much as 20' over an extended period of time and in very good conditions. That is considered quite small in tree terms ;-) In fact, there is a current thread on another forum discussing why arborvitaes are described in most literature as shrubs rather than trees.
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My profile used to say zone 5 ME, I just noticed it says just Z5 now. Sorry. I'm on the border of zone 5b/6a (I generally plant for zone 5, and take a chance on some zone 6 perennials), in the southern-most area of Maine about 3 miles inland from the ocean. The house faces east, so the tree is on the north east corner. Full sun. The wind generally comes down a hill from the north (across the open yard). The spot where the tree is, is 12' from the house, I could move it out further for the right tree, but I don't want a 40' wide tree there. The native soil has quite a bit of clay, but when we built the beds last year we removed quite a bit and brought in sand and loam with compost. That garden you see there was planted less than one year ago. I have a Bloodgood Maple in another bed in the back yard (the northwest corner of the house) that gets the same wind and is doing well, also planted last year. Pests...well, I have Japanese Beetles I'm handpicking off a rose bush and a hybiscus. I don't have any lilies, but if I did have them I'd have lily leef beetles on them. No Gypsy Moths in this area that I know of. I can't think of anything else. Humidity...typical New England, summers can be humid, but it's not as bad as, say, Boston (the average high in July is 83). We get maybe 5 days a summer above 90. I just looked up the precipitation, we get between 3.4 and 4.8 inches per month. May-September is just under 4" per month. I want an ornamental tree, I know it sounds cliche, but this is a prominent position in the yard (and from the street), so I want something pretty. Except in bloom, I don't really think of Crabapples as pretty. I also considered Kwanzan Cherry, but I was told they can split in windy locations. I'd like something that will reach 20', but won't exceed 30'. The current spot was chosen for the size the Aurora Dogwood would have reached, but I can move the spot out to accomodate a tree that will get wider than 20' (there aren't any pipes or anything in the way). I appreciate the help, let me know if you need anything else. If you go to the album you can see lot more pics of what the site looks like.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
6 years ago
had trouble finding it.. due to the lack of a searchable title.. then i couldnt find yours.. lol ...

i dont know how apropos it is specifically ... but it gives you some alternatives to think about ...

trees never really stop growing.. in tree time ....and arbs are conifers.. which are trees ...... so i am hoping i might get you to think outside the box ....which are already sitting in ....

note at the link .. ideas increased when we found out location ... and they added some pix ...

i note that this peep can used shrubs because the pool is inground .... ergo ... show us your pool ...

ken

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/forsythia-supplier-dsvw-vd~5014734?n=7
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Kim in PL (SoCal zone 10/Sunset 24)
6 years ago
Photos and climate?
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KD Landscape
6 years ago
@ken_adrian 'DeGroot's Spire' nice recommendation! ....relatively obscure and hard to find in larger sizes, but a good plant.
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Dig Doug's Designs
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Check out Black Dragon Cryptomeria.....nice Asian garden plant.

https://www.thetreecenter.com/black-dragon-cryptomeria-japanese-cedar/
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Embothrium
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
The small parts of kinds like arborvitaes are actually just the thing to be a nuisance near swimming pools, if they ever get onto the water and into the filter. When there is a choice large parted plants are much to be preferred around pools.

In my portion of USDA 8 'DeGroot's Spire' has the typical poor winter color of the species, unlike the unusually well colored 'Smaragd'.
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Help to find the right tree

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

Comments (8)

mindshift

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

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