You're too cold for Green Giant. One typical zone 4 winter and the fun will be over. Instead, you should be looking for Thuja occidentalis 'Hetz Wintergreen' aka 'Wintergreen'.

Musser Forest nursery sells seedlings of 'Hetz Wintergreen' I just want you to be aware of that. It's in the small print. What you need is the true culitvar. The largest I've found online are at Evergreen Nursery and they're inexpensive, in fact, dirt cheap.

Dax

i would highly recommend going small ... they are easier to deal with all around ... handled.. planting.. etc ... and will usually outgrow larger field dug plants ....

do you know how to properly plant a tree/conifer ...

and second.. i suspect you are lured in by the FAST GROWING PART ... and i want you to understand.. that in your ground freeze area .... you are not going to get a FAST GROWING tree ... as per all the marketing hype ...

presuming dax is correct ... and i dont doubt him ..... i have a 'Hetz Wintergreen' ... not many peeps could tell it apart from a GG ... as you cant see hardiness ...

i swear.. these 2 .. grow from the second the ground thaws... until it freezes ... none of this one single 'push' in spring .... but you ... like me.. are limited by the suspended animation of ground freeze ... so you will never get it to grow.. at the rate.. peeps in warmer zones do ...

i am also concerned.... about you understand the footprint of these.. neither is really a small suburban garden plant ... in 10 years.. they have the potential to be 6 to 8 feet wide.. and could swallow a small yard ... we can discuss this if need be ...

get the FAST GROWING part out of your head.... and we can find you stuff to grow ...

ken

Just for giggles and tickles; photos this morning:
(click on photos to enlarge them and you may enlarge them a 2nd and 3rd time by clicking on the magnifying glass at the lower right corner of each photo. I stand 5'7")

Thuja occidentalis 'Hetz Wintergreen' 5 years old from 6 inch bare root cuttings. The roots were 3-4" long and the cutting was 1-year old.

Thuja x Green Giant 5 years old from 3 to 5 gallon roots grown from rootmaker TM cells. These rooted cuttings were likely 2-3 years old and had more roots than you would believe was possible.

Dax

This post was edited by gardener365 on Wed, Oct 2, 13 at 9:23

Space won't be an issue here. We have plenty of room.

We want to screen out the neighbor. Right now there is a row of spruce trees between the property lines but we want to add another row of "something" evergreen that is thick.

Ken, can you tell me how to properly plant a conifer?

You are correct Ken on your assumption of the "fast growing" part. I understand that purchasing a larger tree vs a smaller tree would mean that the larger tree would take longer to establish itself before it took off.

How do you feel about Techny or Dark American?

its all in the link ..

no amendments... native soil .. high if clay ....

no fert..

mulch..

water deeply and infrequently ....

read up .. ask specific questions ...

i dont know techy nor DA ...

you gotta start learning the latin .... if e.g. one of those is Thuja occidentalis.. then it will perform as such.. no matter what the fancy name at the end is .. the name in the quotes .... .... those 2 names would be the species upon which the cultivar was chooses.. a CULTIvated VARietal ....

so if T. occid.. is z4.. then they all are ....

GG is not T. o. .. and that is why it is different ..... offhand.. GG is a cross between.... and i am being lazy and not looking it up .. lol.. T. occid X T. standishii ... and by watching the latin.. you can intuit the answers you are looking for. ...

how many you looking at????? my soil conservation dist sells native version in spring.. for a buck each ... or less ....

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

I like Techny. I believe it is zone 3. Last winter we had lots of snow damage on all kinds of arborvitaes and the technys had the least amount of damage.

My green giants where planted in spring 2011... so technically I have seen them grow for the past 3 seasons. Each season they have put on almost exactly a foot. They claim up to 5', I'd say that's possible under perfect growing conditions/soil or in a green house. But out here in the real world I can't see them growing 5' a year. Mine were the first things I have ever planted. I thought when I planted them in 2011 by now they would be blocking out my neighbor. Right now they are only up to my chest and about a foot wide lol. Lesson learned that you can't always go by what the 'pros' say the growth rate will be unless you have the perfect soil with the perfect growing conditions.

'Techny' is a favorite of mine. I collect arborvitae. Evergreen Nursery sells those, too. They have #2 pots available now but are sold out of #1's. I'll link you.

Dax

Here is a link that might be useful: 'Techny' Thuja occidentalis Evergreen Nursery

Thanks Dax. I came across this very same website while searching the web.

Can you recommend spacing for the Techy? Ideally the thickest hedge would be nice BUT I do not want to risk the chance of killing them bc they are too close. Also, I mentioned above this Techny row would be an additional row to screen out neighbors. The first row is spruce trees that are mature. How far from these spruce to start the second row should I plant the Techny. The Techny will be in one line and not staggered.

I am not sure how many yet Ken - depends on my spacing answer.

I think 3' is as close as you should go. 4' is ideal in your case though and that will only add another couple years to them filling in.

Dax

Would it be 4' from trunk to trunk or from current drip line to drip line?

trunks

Dax

Dax,

You were referring to how far apart to plant the arbs from one another right?

Any suggestions on how far from the line of already mature spruce I should plant the arbs? They are going to be parallel to the spruce.

But.......I've had a number of Green Giants up at my Z4 place-some out in the open, some tucked into sheltered areas. None show any signs whatsoever of insufficient hardiness.

+oM

Sorry was out of town.

Give the arbs some room. All the information is there if you look. The closer you plant the arbs the sooner they will make a hedge but they will continue to grow in diameter since that's their genetic make up. Take a look at photos on Google. You'll see plenty of photos of Techny 8' in diameter. You gotta do what you gotta do. Plus you can prune arborvitae and it regenerates it's "evergreen" foliage from stems without wood with sufficient light. If it were I doing this, I'd space them 10' away from the mature spruce and space them 5' to 6' apart. Just my take and my acceptance to wait for them to make a hedge.

+oM, have seen a lot of posters on here in zone 4 with complete rows of dead GG's. Good/great soil certainly will help significantly as will size of root mass at planting time. I imagine you have some pretty good soil up there in Wisconsin on that land? Plus you're a god damn pro at this stuff! ;-)

Dax

Hello... Question on pruning green giants... I just planted a row of 40 gg's. they are 8-10ft tall. Almost half of them have double leaders from which I've gathered is because they weren't pruned when they were smaller. Some don't start til further up but some start at the bottom and so it is almost like two trees growing out of the root ball. I believe I need to determine the dominant leader and trim the other back...? I saw somewhere to not trim more than one third.. If I cut one third on these trees I would be cutting off a 1 inch thick branch. Is this ok or should I do less than that. Or should I just let them go.. I planted them 5 ft apart for a privacy screen.. Or can I cut it down low and put pruning sealer on it? Also it is the middle of December so should I wait till spring to prune? Any thoughts anybody? Please help...

Start a new thread and post some pics for best results.

Frank

Starterdude, I tried and I cant figure out how to post a new thread.. Could you tell me how? Thanks!!!

Hello... Question on pruning green giants... I just planted a row of 40 gg's. they are 8-10ft tall. Almost half of them have double leaders from which I've gathered is because they weren't pruned when they were smaller. Some don't start til further up but some start at the bottom and so it is almost like two trees growing out of the root ball. I believe I need to determine the dominant leader and trim the other back...? I saw somewhere to not trim more than one third.. If I cut one third on these trees I would be cutting off a 1 inch thick branch. Is this ok or should I do less than that. Or should I just let them go.. I planted them 5 ft apart for a privacy screen.. Or can I cut it down low and put pruning sealer on it? Also it is the middle of December so should I wait till spring to prune? Any thoughts anybody? Please help...

greenguy did figure out how to do his own post ... and i answered him there ...

no sealer.. EVER ...

ken

Thanks Dax! Been away for most of the month. As far as soil up at my farm, I'd rate it good for trees, adequate for agriculture, and no better. Sandy, stony, seeming to have roughly equal components of sand, silt, clay, and all those rocks and stones! But I did nothing extra for my GGs, save perhaps placing woodchip mulch at time of planting. No additional waterings, no extra anything.

Oh well, I believe you Dax. And maybe my story isn't over yet. But I have got to say, so far-with the oldest now in my ground for 4 years-GGs seem to do just great up there.

+oM