Roger's Tree Pick of the Month: deodar and other cedars

The holiday season is around the corner and this time of year is when many different trees are brought into our homes to adorn, celebrate and bring in the season.

Pines, junipers and cedars are all greens that can be used to festoon the season with the aromatic fragrance they behold. One of the noblest conifers that can be grown here in our Southland climate is Cedrus deodar. This cedar’s home is in the highlands of western Himalaya Mountains and ranges from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, India, Tibet and Nepal, occurring from 4,000 to 10,000 feet in elevation.

This evergreen coniferous tree can reach heights of 80 feet or more in time with an occasional trunk of eight feet in diameter. It has a conical crown with level branches and drooping branchlets which are very graceful.

Deodar cedar is a very elegant ornamental tree and has been greatly planted in parks, estates, roadside plantings and open areas. This is not a tree for the small backyard and it is very important when selecting trees to “plant the right tree in the right place.”

Deodar cedar is the national tree of Pakistan and the specific name “deodar” is derived from the Sanskrit name “devadar,” meaning “timber of the gods.”

I planted eight small five-gallon trees on my ranch here in Fallbrook some 25 years ago and now they are towering to heights of over 60 feet and are very stately. They line the roads in my botanical garden and have never been trimmed, allowing the low-branching skirts to caress the earth at the ground floor level, which is a beautiful sight when allowed to grow naturally. I watered these trees for the first couple of years after planting and then they only received winter rains, which have kept them growing very handsomely. The trees are truly drought-tolerant by my experience.

When I worked in Los Angeles as a horticultural designer, I had the great fortune to work with Cliff May, the notable architect whose style of homes in the 1940s and ’50s was called “California Ranch.” At one of the May homes in Pacific Palisades, nurseryman Carl Wagner planted a deodar tree years ago in front of his May-designed home and with judicious pruning kept it to a height of two feet with a spread of over 25 feet as a conifer blanket at the ground level. It was a spectacular sight.

May also designed the headquarter buildings for Sunset magazine in Menlo Park, CA.

Another notable cedar is the Cedrus atlantica (Atlas cedar) from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and Algeria in Northern Africa. Atlas cedar is an imperial and picturesque specimen with massive, horizontal spreading branches. It is long-lived and needs lots of space and should be used as a key focal point or widely spaced in groves so that its magnificent form can be fully appreciated. Atlas cedar is tolerant of hot, humid weather and adapts well here in San Diego County. Its blue-gray color is like no other glaucous blue for a special place in a special garden.

There are many cultivars of this cedar, and another interesting form is Glauca Pendula, which is much smaller and a slow grower. This curious blue-gray foliage plant is especially handsome in rock gardens, where it can be groomed into a bonsai-like specimen. If you are patient, you’ll have fun training the “weeping” Atlas cedar like a slow-growing veil along fence tops or over arbors where its drooping branches will eventually form cascading curtains that sweep to the ground and you’ll be the talk of the gardeners’ circle.

Looking for more interesting cedars? Why not try your horticultural hand at Cedrus libani (Cedar of Lebanon) native to Asia Minor? It’s a real slow grower and can be kept in a large container or tub for some years as a unique patio specimen in full sun. I have seen these used as a stylized focal point in oriental gardens and it really can be set off with choice boulders, gravel and low-growing grasses as a work of art! Artistic and professional pruning of this cedar can keep it in scale over the years in this type of unique landscape setting.

The history of the Lebanon cedars declined centuries ago through the over-usage of these beautiful trees for their wood. The Phoenicians needed timbers for their ships and the Romans needed logs and wood for their developing culture. Thus, the fate of these ancient trees soon diminished rapidly. Conservation and select cutting of trees was not a concern in those days, history tells us, and massive forests were lost over the centuries.

There are some Lebanon cedars that date back over 1,000 years and are still living today. This is one of the best times of the year when the selection and availability of these cedars are at a number of nurseries. I saw some very rare Atlas cedars at Ganter Nursery in Vista just last week and that’s like finding a real garden jewel.

To see some old specimens of these cedar trees, visit some botanical gardens like Huntington Botanical Garden in San Marino, Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia, Quail Gardens in Encinitas and our own San Diego Balboa Park. A trip to a botanical garden can be an incredible adventure.

Some nurseries will bring these cedars in as living Christmas trees and can be enjoyed after the holidays planted out in the garden. For some of the more unusual cultivars of cedar selections you might have to go hunting, but it is definitely worth the quest. Bring the kids to a nursery and get them exposed to the wonderful world of flowers and trees. Getting our children and grandchildren exposed to the plant kingdom will give them the opportunity to be our future stewards of the earth.

Happy cedar hunting to one and all, and thank you for allowing me to bring my monthly “Tree Pick” and share with you some great trees for our gardens. “Green fingers are the extension of a verdant heart.”

Roger Boddaert, also known as the Tree Man of Fallbrook, is a certified International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Arborist. He may be contacted at (760) 728-4297.