How tall does a Goldcrest cedar grow?

[mebden]

Hi,

Last summer, among the beetroot and other veggies in my back garden in Oxford UK, I planted a 'Goldcrest cedar' (not sure what this is exactly). It's grown maybe an inch or two and is currently about 18 inches high.

Someone asked me whether it will one day shoot up and become too big. I couldn't say for sure, so I thought I'd seek help. Attached is a picture. The soil is at least a couple feet deep (who knows exactly, I can dig and dig), between a concrete shed foundation (foreground) and an asphalt drive behind the fence (background). The water table is fine -- though the garden was flooded in Summer 2007 by about 8 inches when we had a lot of rain.

Any help appreciated -- the question is, "how many metres tall can a Goldcrest cedar grow?"

Thank you,

Mark

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[echinosum]

Goldcrest is a variety of Cupressus macrocarpa, Monterey cypress. Commonly used as a hedging or topiary variety. In the wild in perfect growing conditions they grow to 40m, but in a garden, away from its ideal habitat in coastal California, untrimmed, more likely to end up something like 5m after 10 years and 10-15m eventually.

I have seen alternate green and yellow in macrocarpa hedges etc so I don't think the yellow one is necessarily much less vigorous than the green.

It is one of the parents of Leyland cypress, and its general properties are similar (ie, if you cut back into brown stuff, it doesn't grow back, so you have to trim regularly). It isn't quite such a monster as leyland cypress, but it is a substantial and fairly rapidly growing tree, not a dwarf. If you think that this is some dinky little miniature plant, and have no desire to trim it to size every year, pull it out now, because they are much harder to get rid of later.

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[beeble]

Thank you for your reply, I may well take your advice, because I can see some small berries growing, so I may have to wait until about June until they have gone. Thanks again

[echinosum]

The berries on Arbutus unedo mature in the autumn. The flowers also occur in the autumn. Sometimes they can both be there at the same time. Arbutus berries can be eaten when ripe, but most people don't find them tasty enough to bother. It is more or less impossible to prune the tree without removing some flower buds/flowers/berries, as there is always at least one of these on the tree. Though I won't have any berries on mine this year as they were all killed by frost over the winter.

There are other kinds of Arbutus commonly grown, such as Arbutus x menziesii which have somewhat different timing.

[echinosum]

I meant Arbutus x andrachnoides.

[mebden]

Thank you very much for that very useful reply!

Mark

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