Feelin' Blue Deodar Cedar

Follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep, extensive root system. Watering can be reduced after establishment. Feed with a general purpose fertilizer before new growth begins in spring.

Use this bright blue conifer in shrub borders for an injection of carefree cool color. It's a natural for rock gardens nestled into landscape boulders. Irregular form fits nicely into woodland gardens that need relief from too much green. Spot into wild gardens among naturalistic compositions of native shrubs and prairie grasses. Low profile growth makes this creeping shrub a perfect groundcover on banks and slopes or cascading off raised planter edges and retaining walls. A truly eye-catching candidate planted in well chosen, elegant Asian containers.

Use a blue conifer against bold color contrasts such as Gold Flash Broom, (Genista pilosa 'Gold Flash'), Bronze Carpet Stonecrop, (Sedum spurium 'Bronze Carpet') and Quaking Grass, (Brizia media). It's particularly beautiful with bronze tinted foliage of Plum Pudding Coral Bells, (Heuchera x 'Plum Pudding'), Scarlet Pearl Coralberry, (Symphoricarpos 'Scarlet Pearl') and Gold Coast Improved Jumiper, (Juniperus x pfitzeriana 'MonSan') and Prostrate Rock Cotoneaster, (Cotoneaster horizontalis 'Perpusillus').

This is the dwarf form of a genus of primarly tree species and falls into the Pinaceae with most other conifers. Named from the Greek, kedrus, its kin include the famous cedars of Lebanon. Its classification is attributed to German botanist, Christoph Trew, 1695-1769, although some Anglo-centric references indicate John Loudon, 1783-1843, the noted English horticulturist and writer. This species was named by Scots botanist, David Don, 1799-1841 and his brother, George. Trees are native to the Himalayan Mountains where its local name is deodar. They were officially introduced into cultivation about 1831 although they have been grown in Chinese parks and gardens for centuries. Originally selected for outstanding blue color and exceptionally low growth by the great plantsman, Cliff Comstock.

The name deodar translates from the original Sankrit as "timber of the gods". Deodar cedars are among the great aromatic timber woods of antiquity, considered pest resistant and therefore used to create containers to house precious but perishable.