expect to wait a little longer .. to find out... you dont mention where you are ... other than zone.. and 6 is awful big ... i am glad you looked at the buds.. but w/o a pic.. i dont know how to interpret your words ... has anything else ... broken dormancy??? ,... flowering shrubs.. conifers.. etc ... are you suggesting its late compared to other things.. or are you just worrying early???? about 50% of my collection if showing winter damage.. all buds are fine ... but i lost BAC years ago.. here in MI z5 ..... so i cant look at mine.. to compare with your words .... have faith ... pix??? ken

Question: Several people mentioned the importance of zone - whether a weeping blue atlas cedar will be hardy in a particular zone. How do you factor in other conditions? I live in southeastern VA on the Chesapeake Bay. The water that surrounds us moderate temps on both ends. In spring, temps warm up slowly. In winter, temps get cold later. Usual 1st frost is in late Nov - early Dec. This year, our first hard frost was in late Dec. The big issue here (and it's a BIG issue) is wind. It's not usual to have winds of 30-35+ mph to blow for days, causing plants to dry up and die. In winter and early spring, NNW winds are the main problem (we are fairly well protected from NNE winds). Although this situation is comfortable for people, several days of warm/hot wind aren't good for trees that are under stress and must deal with these conditions - or die. Given these conditions, would you grow a weeping blue atlas cedar here? How would they handel an occasional salt water bath from a tropical storm or hurricane? Thanks, Pam

Thanks any of those trees would be good. I will make a note of them. I am going to put it near the deck, so I don't want one that would have a branches over hanging the deck or a fire danger problem. I never knew they could be so small. If it's near to the deck it would easier to run a cord out for Christmas lights, but maybe I can get solar powered ones? That should be the new thing in lights. But eventually, we are going to remove the deck anyway and make the deck smaller, so I can have more planting room. I like the tiny rock garden trees also, but they are very hard to find, the website said. They look like pin cushions. We have a lot of Monterrey Pines in San Francisco. They grow very fast and do a lot of damage to sideways the foundations of houses, and they are not very attractively shaped either. They even grow as weeds around here. We also have a lot of Norfolk Island Trees. They are big and people top them, and then they really look terrible. It's hard to see a healthy conifer in my area. The next most popular tree is the some kind of Cypress. I don't think we are as ideal as the Northwest for conifers.

"what about the tree makes you think it is in poor condition" For one, it has very few needles. The branches should be fully clothed with needles, whereas this one looks like only new growth is present. Also the pot it is in now may be adequate but the container it was in at the nursery could well have been too small, restricting root growth and causing stress. There is a limit to how much you can effectively train these into a serpentine form. If given room to grow and sufficient time, these get to be massive trees but the weight of the branching and the weeping habit keeps them low to the ground. They need to be trained along the top of a support system (like a fence) or the branches propped up if you don't want to allow the leader to just droop and grow naturally. And while I grow a great many conifers in containers, this is not a selection I would choose for that purpose on any sort of long term basis. It really needs to be in the ground. Check out these images to get a good sense of the potential for this tree.