As The Passionate Gardener, I want everyone to have a thriving, beautiful garden. Unfortunately, as I drive around the city, I see many gardens that are not thriving, even though it is obvious that there are people trying very hard. One problem my assistant and I saw so often that we began to joke about it; is the ‘Spring Gold Cedar’. (The joke, which may only be funny to gardeners, is that the cedars have died over the winter, and in the spring, display dead, gold coloured foliage. It is also an homage to the creative names plant breeders give to their new offerings. Heuchera ‘Root Beer’ is not a joke, but rather a pretty new perennial.)
Why are there so many Spring Gold cedars? Not to mention, Spring Gold pines, spruce, and junipers? There are a few reasons that I can tell, and they are all fixable. The first would be a lack of water. Cedars, especially, but all evergreens really need to be watered regularly as they establish themselves. The most important time to water is in the fall. In Calgary, our weather pattern has changed dramatically over the last decade or so. Fall stretches on and on, which is lovely for people, but can be very hard on plants. They lose moisture on warm days, and there is little rain to make up for it. Many homeowners have their irrigation system shut down in September, so plants accustomed to regular water must now enter winter after two months of unexpected drought. This can be neutral or even beneficial to plants that go dormant and lose their leaves in the fall, but it can be very detrimental and even fatal to the evergreens.
