Creating privacy on your property lines and intimate spaces is easy with Arborvitae. If you’re looking for an immediate impact to your landscape and sanctuary our large selection of sizes will create instant tapestry you’ll love and appreciate.
This species, our native Eastern Arborvitae, has the longest lifespan of any North American tree east of the Rockies, and can live 1,700 years. ‘Emerald Green’ didn’t originate here, however. It emerged from a Danish nursery in 1950, which is why you’ll sometimes see this tree referred to as ‘Smaragd’—Danish for “Emerald.” The descendants of the original owner of that nursery, D.T. Poulsen, are still running the business, though their attentions have turned to plant breeding, and they specialize in roses. Some 30 million ‘Poulsen’ roses are produced annually.
Arborvitae means “Tree of Life”; the Vitamin C in the needles of the Eastern species saved early explorers from succumbing to scurvy (we’ll stick to orange juice). This variety is a hybrid between a Western species and one from Japan. It was first grown at the Poulsen family nursery in Denmark (yes, the one that brought us ‘Emerald Green,’ too) in 1937, and then shared with the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. in 1967. Once the public found out about it (which didn’t happen until the late 1990s), they loved it.
