Arborvitae in Yakima: Snow Splay, Shaping and Dry Summers

Arborvitae are the evergreen of choice for privacy hedges and tidy columns around Yakima, and they're good at the job. Then a wet snow settles into the branches, a few stems bow outward, and by March the column that looked sharp in October looks like a bad haircut.

What snow does to them

Many arborvitae are grown as several upright stems packed close together. Heavy, wet snow loads the soft foliage, pushes the stems apart and bends them away from the center. Frozen branches don't spring back. The stems that bow out in one storm often stay out, leaving a gap in the middle and a hedge that looks open and ragged. Wind adds to it, and this valley gets its share.

Tight columns suffer most, because the stems share nothing but a base. A hedge row planted close and kept as one mass tends to hold snow better, since the plants prop each other up.

Catching a splay early

A few habits cut the damage a lot:

• Knock snow off gently with a broom, sweeping upward from underneath the branches. Don't shake or hit frozen branches, because cold foliage is brittle.
• Before winter, tie multi-stem columns loosely with soft, wide, stretchy tape or straps, and take it off in spring so it doesn't cut into the bark.
• Check after each heavy snow, not only once everything melts.
• Give a bowed stem a few warm days before you decide anything. It may rise on its own.

Shaping, and how deep you can cut

Here's the rule that matters most with arborvitae: they grow from green foliage only. Cut into the bare brown wood in the center and it will not sprout new growth. A pass with the shears that goes too deep leaves a brown hole that stays a brown hole. So shaping works on the outer green, taking off the shaggy ends and reaching back to a clean column or hedge line, with every cut staying inside the green.

A hedge should be a little narrower at the top than at the bottom, so light reaches the lower branches. A hedge cut wider on top shades its own base, and the bottom goes bare. Split stems can sometimes be tied back into line. Ones that are broken or dead get cut out entirely, back to a live side stem. The usual window for shaping is late winter through early summer, before the hottest weather. Heavy shearing in a heat wave is hard on them.

Hedges are easier to keep than to rescue. A light trim once a year holds a line far better than a hard cut every five years, because the second kind usually ends up in the brown wood.

Yakima's dry summers

Even established arborvitae struggle through the long dry stretches here. Brown tips and a thin, see-through interior in August are often thirst, not disease. Water slowly and deeply so the water reaches the root zone, rather than a quick daily sprinkle that wets only the top inch. Push a finger or a screwdriver into the soil to see how far down it's dry. A couple of inches of mulch helps, kept back from the stems.

Don't forget fall. Evergreens keep losing moisture through their foliage all winter, and a dry, windy day with frozen soil can brown them. A good soak during a dry autumn before the ground freezes is cheap insurance.

When shaping won't fix it

Sometimes it's better to start over. If a hedge has gone brown through the middle, if the interior is bare from years of shearing too deep, if several stems are dead or the whole row leans, no amount of trimming brings it back, and cutting harder won't make it regrow. The honest answer in those cases is removal, then replanting with something that suits the spot. Removal means taking the shrubs down to the ground and dealing with what's left. The stumps can be ground out, which also clears the strip for whatever goes in next.

West Valley Tree Service does both, shrub and arborvitae trimming and shrub removal, and the brush goes onto the dump trailer instead of staying in your yard. The crew serves Yakima, West Valley, Union Gap, Selah, Naches, Toppenish and Wapato. If you can't tell which side of the line your hedge is on, text a photo to (509) 961-5496. Estimates are free.