Cedar Tree Growing Guide: How to Plant and Care for True Cedars

Before you buy a “cedar,” find out what you’re actually buying. The word gets slapped on at least four unrelated trees, and only one group has any right to it.

That confusion sends homeowners home with the wrong tree constantly. You ask for a cedar, the nursery hands you an arborvitae or an eastern red cedar (which is a juniper), and now you’ve planted a 6-foot hedge shrub when you wanted a 60-foot specimen conifer. Or the other way around. This guide is about the real cedars, the Cedrus genus, and there are only four of them in the world. Three are worth planting in a home yard: the deodar cedar, the blue atlas cedar, and the cedar of Lebanon. If you want the shrubby screening trees people also call cedar, start with our evergreen trees guide instead, or the roundup of cypress and cedar tree types that sorts the whole naming mess out.

Here’s the short version: a true cedar is a big, elegant, slightly formal conifer with needles in tufted clusters and barrel-shaped cones that sit upright on the branch. Plant one only if you have room. These are not small-yard trees, and I’ll be honest about that further down.

The naming trap: what counts as a true cedar

Botanists reserve “cedar” for the genus Cedrus. Four species, all native to the Old World, all with the same tufted-needle look and upright cones. Everything else that carries the name is a different tree wearing a borrowed label.

The impostors you’ll run into at a California nursery:

• Arborvitae (Thuja), sold as “western red cedar” or “green giant.” Flat, scaly foliage. A screening plant, not a specimen tree.
• Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana). A juniper. Great tough native, but not a cedar.
• Incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens), which actually grows wild in the Sierra. Beautiful tree, still not a Cedrus.

None of those are wrong to plant. They’re just wrong to call cedars if you’re shopping by look or care needs. A true cedar behaves nothing like an arborvitae. It gets enormous, it drops its lower limbs as it ages, and it wants sharp drainage. Know which one you’re buying before the truck backs up your driveway.

Cedar trees at a glance

The three true cedars worth planting, with the numbers that matter. All figures come from the NC State Extension plant toolbox and Virginia Tech dendrology.

Species	Mature size (landscape)	USDA zones	Growth rate	Native range
Deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara)	40-70 ft tall, 30-40 ft wide	7-9	Medium, 1-2 ft/yr	Western Himalayas
Blue atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica)	40-60 ft tall, 30-40 ft wide	6-9	Medium, up to 2 ft/yr	Atlas Mtns, Morocco and Algeria
Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani)	40-60 ft tall, 30-50 ft wide	5-7	Slow, ~20 ft in 20 years	Turkey, Lebanon, Cyprus

All three want full sun and good drainage. All three eventually get wide. Notice the zone spread: cedar of Lebanon is the cold-tough one (down to zone 5), and deodar is the tender one (zone 7 and warmer). More on that when we get to cold.

Why plant a true cedar

Because nothing else has the same silhouette. A mature deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara) has a broad pyramidal crown with a nodding leader and weeping branch tips that soften the whole tree. It reads as graceful, not stiff, which is rare in a big conifer. The needles are silvery blue-green and grow in dense little tufts.

For Sacramento and the rest of Northern California, deodar cedar is one of the better large evergreens you can plant. It shrugs off our zone 9 summers, handles clay soil as long as it drains, and goes drought tolerant once the roots are down. It’s moderately salt tolerant too, which helps near driveways and streets that get winter de-icing runoff. Our fast-growing evergreen trees guide covers where deodar fits among the quicker screening conifers.

Blue atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca’) is the one people plant for color. The foliage is a real steel-blue, and the tree keeps a stiffer, more upright architecture than the deodar. It’s the cedar you plant when you want a living sculpture in the middle of the lawn.

Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) is the historic one, the tree on the Lebanese flag. It grows slow and lives long, and it develops those flat-topped, layered horizontal branches that make old specimens look like something out of a museum. If you’re planting for your grandkids rather than yourself, this is the cedar.

The honest catch

Here’s where I talk you out of it if you have a small yard.

These trees get huge, and they get wide. A deodar cedar reaches 40 to 70 feet tall and 30 to 40 feet across in a home landscape. In its native Himalayas it tops 150 feet. Cedar of Lebanon can hit 40 to 60 feet with a trunk up to 10 feet around on an old tree. You cannot plant one of these 15 feet from the house and prune it into behaving. It will win. Give a deodar a 30-foot radius of open space, minimum. If your lot is a quarter acre and you want a lawn too, this is not your tree. Look at a Japanese maple or another small ornamental instead.

They drop their lower limbs as they age, and that’s normal. A young cedar is branched to the ground and looks full. A 40-year-old cedar has a bare lower trunk and a high canopy, because the tree naturally sheds shaded interior branches. If you were counting on ground-level screening for the life of the tree, you’ll be disappointed. Cedars screen best in their first couple of decades.

Sharp drainage or death. This is the one that kills cedars in NorCal yards. All three species are, in the extension’s words, “intolerant of poorly drained wet soils.” Plant a cedar in a low spot with heavy wet clay and Phytophthora root and crown rot will take it out. Our clay soil is fine as long as water moves through it. A boggy corner of the yard is a death sentence. If you have standing water after a rain, plant somewhere else or build up a mound.

Deodar is weak in real cold. Rated to zone 7, deodar cedar takes frost damage in hard winters, especially on young trees and tender new growth. If you’re anywhere the winter dips below about 0F, plant cedar of Lebanon (zone 5) or the ‘Karl Fuchs’ deodar (good to zone 6b) instead of a standard deodar.

Some mess. Cedars throw pollen clouds in fall and drop woody cones that break apart on the ground. It’s not messy on the scale of a liquidambar or a mulberry, but it’s not a tidy tree either.

Where cedars grow

Match the species to your winter low, and you’ll avoid most cedar failures.

Cedar of Lebanon, zones 5-7. The most cold-hardy true cedar. If you’re in the Northeast, the Midwest, or the mountain West and you want a real cedar, this is the one that survives. It won’t love the deep South’s heat and humidity as much as deodar does.

Blue atlas cedar, zones 6-9. The middle option on cold, and the widest overall range. Handles both acidic and alkaline soil. Good across most of the South and up the West Coast.

Deodar cedar, zones 7-9. The warm-climate cedar and the best fit for California’s Central Valley, the Bay Area, the Southeast, and the Southwest. In Sacramento (zone 9b) it’s about as reliable as a large conifer gets. Give it wind protection when young, because it can snap or brown in a hard exposed blow.

How to plant a cedar tree

Plant in fall or early spring, when the soil is workable and the tree isn’t fighting summer heat while it settles in. In NorCal, October through March is the window. Fall planting gives the roots our mild wet winter to establish before the first dry summer.

Site it right the first time. Full sun, 6+ hours. Open space on all sides, because you can’t move a cedar later. A deodar wants at least 30 feet of clearance from the house, the fence line, and any power lines. Cedar of Lebanon and blue atlas both have deep taproots and hate being transplanted once established, so choose the spot carefully.

Check drainage before you dig. Fill the planting hole with water and watch it. If it hasn’t drained in a few hours, you’ve got a drainage problem, and a cedar will rot there. Move to higher ground or mound the planting area up 12 to 18 inches so the crown sits above the wet.

Dig wide, not deep. Make the hole two to three times the width of the root ball and exactly as deep. Set the root flare (where the trunk widens into roots) right at or slightly above grade. Planting too deep invites the crown rot these trees are prone to. Backfill with the native soil you dug out. Don’t amend the hole heavily, since that just makes a bathtub in clay.

Stake only if it’s exposed. A young deodar in a windy spot benefits from staking its first year or two, because that nodding leader and weeping form catch wind. A heavy-duty tree staking kit holds the trunk steady while the roots grip. Stake loosely, allow some sway, and pull the stakes after the first full growing season. Cedars in a sheltered yard don’t need staking at all.

Watering and care

First two summers, water deeply. A new cedar needs consistent moisture to get its roots down. Soak the root zone once or twice a week through the first two dry seasons, letting the top few inches dry between waterings. Deep and infrequent beats shallow and daily. You want the roots chasing water downward.

After that, back off. Established cedars are drought tolerant. In a normal NorCal year, a mature deodar needs no supplemental water at all once it’s been in the ground three or four years. Overwatering a mature cedar is more dangerous than underwatering it, because soggy roots invite rot. This is a Mediterranean-adapted tree at heart. Treat it like one.

Mulch, but keep it off the trunk. A 2 to 3 inch ring of mulch out to the drip line holds moisture and moderates soil temperature. Pull it back a few inches from the trunk so the root flare stays dry. Piling mulch against the bark is another route to crown rot.

Fertilizer is optional. A cedar in decent soil doesn’t need feeding. If a young tree looks pale or you want to push growth while it fills in, a spring dose of a slow-release evergreen food like Espoma Tree-tone scratched into the soil over the root zone is all it wants, and even that is more about your impatience than the tree’s needs. Skip it on mature, established trees. Our tree fertilizer guide covers timing and the right NPK ratios for conifers if you want to get specific.

How do you prune a cedar tree?

Mostly, you don’t. A true cedar develops its shape on its own, and it looks best when you leave the natural form alone. The graceful drooping habit of a deodar is the whole point. Shearing it into a lollipop ruins it.

Prune only for these reasons, and only in late winter or early spring before new growth:

• Dead, damaged, or diseased wood. Remove it any time you spot it. Cut back to healthy tissue.
• A competing leader. If the tree throws up two central leaders, pick the stronger one and remove the other while it’s young. A single leader makes a stronger tree.
• Clearance. If a low branch is in the way of a walkway or the mower, take it off at the branch collar.

Use clean, sharp bypass pruners for small cuts. A pair of Felco F2 bypass pruners handles anything up to about an inch cleanly, which covers most of what you’ll cut on a cedar. For anything bigger than your wrist, call an arborist. Cedars get big fast, and a large limb over a roof is not a DIY job. Never top a cedar. Topping a conifer this size destroys the form permanently and opens the tree to decay.

Cedar tree problems, pests, and diseases

Cedars are tough once established, but a few things go wrong.

Root and crown rot (Phytophthora) is the big killer, and it traces straight back to drainage. Wet feet, buried root flare, or mulch piled against the trunk all invite it. There’s no cure once it’s advanced. Prevention is the whole game: sharp drainage, correct planting depth, and no overwatering.

Tip blight and needle browning show up as dead branch tips, usually after cold snaps or during wet springs. Prune out affected tips and improve air circulation. It’s rarely fatal on an otherwise healthy tree.

Borers and bark beetles attack stressed and drought-weakened trees. A well-sited, properly watered cedar rarely has beetle trouble. A cedar planted in the wrong spot and fighting for its life is a target. Keep the tree healthy and you keep the beetles out.

A word on cedar apple rust. You may have heard of it and worried. Don’t. Despite the name, cedar apple rust is a disease of junipers (including so-called eastern red cedar) and apple trees, not true Cedrus cedars. Your deodar or blue atlas can’t get it and can’t spread it. It’s one more casualty of the cedar naming confusion. If you have apple trees near a juniper, that article is worth reading, but it has nothing to do with the cedars in this guide.

Cedar cultivars worth knowing

The straight species are great, but a few named selections give you color, a smaller size, or a dramatic weeping form.

Deodar cedar cultivars:

• ‘Aurea’ has gold-tinged new foliage that brightens in full sun. A full-size tree with a color twist.
• ‘Karl Fuchs’ is the cold-hardy pick, reliable to zone 6b where a standard deodar would burn. Choose this one if you’re on the cold edge of cedar country.
• ‘Feelin’ Blue’ and ‘Devinely Blue’ are dwarf, spreading, blue-needled selections. ‘Devinely Blue’ stays around 5 feet tall and 6 feet wide after 10 years, so this is the deodar for a yard that can’t host a 60-foot tree. If you love the look but not the size, plant one of these.

Blue atlas cedar cultivars:

• ‘Glauca’ is the standard steel-blue atlas cedar, the one most nurseries stock. Full size, upright, intensely blue.
• ‘Glauca Pendula’ is the weeping blue atlas. It has no natural leader, so growers train it over an arch or along a wall into whatever serpentine shape they like. It stays small and sculptural and works in a spot where a full-size cedar never could. This is the cedar for people with a small formal garden and a flair for the dramatic.

Cedar tree FAQ

What is the difference between a true cedar and an arborvitae? A true cedar belongs to the genus Cedrus and has needle-like foliage in tufted clusters with upright barrel-shaped cones. Arborvitae (Thuja) has flat, scaly foliage and small papery cones, and it’s sold as “western red cedar” or “green giant.” They’re unrelated. Cedars are large specimen conifers; arborvitae are screening shrubs and small trees.

How fast does a cedar tree grow? Deodar and blue atlas cedars grow at a medium rate of 1 to 2 feet per year. Cedar of Lebanon is slow, reaching only about 20 feet in its first 20 years. None of them is a fast-growing tree by hedge standards, so plant a cedar as a long-term specimen, not a quick screen.

Are cedar trees good for small yards? No. True cedars mature at 40 to 70 feet tall and 30 to 50 feet wide, and they drop their lower limbs with age. They need at least a 30-foot radius of open space. For a small yard, choose a dwarf cultivar like ‘Devinely Blue’ deodar or the weeping ‘Glauca Pendula’ blue atlas cedar instead of a full-size tree.

Why is my cedar tree dying from the bottom up? Two likely causes. First, cedars naturally shed their lower limbs as they age, which is normal and not a disease. Second, if the whole tree is browning and declining, suspect Phytophthora root and crown rot from poor drainage, buried root flare, or overwatering. Root rot has no cure once advanced, so the fix is prevention: sharp drainage and correct planting depth.

Can cedar trees survive cold winters? Cedar of Lebanon is the cold-hardy true cedar, reliable to USDA zone 5. Blue atlas cedar handles zone 6. Deodar cedar is the tender one, rated to zone 7, and it takes frost damage in hard winters unless you plant the cold-hardy ‘Karl Fuchs’ selection, which holds up to zone 6b.

Do cedar trees need a lot of water? Only while establishing. Water a new cedar deeply once or twice a week through its first two summers. After three or four years the tree is drought tolerant and needs no supplemental water in a normal NorCal year. Overwatering a mature cedar is more dangerous than underwatering, because wet roots invite rot.

The bottom line on cedars

Plant a true cedar if you have the room and you want a specimen tree that’ll outlive you. Deodar for warm climates and NorCal, cedar of Lebanon for cold country, blue atlas for the blue color. Give all three full sun and sharp drainage, keep them off wet clay, and site them 30 feet from anything you care about. Water them for two summers, then leave them alone. Do that and you’ll have one of the most graceful conifers in the neighborhood.

If your lot can’t handle a tree this size, that’s not a failure, it’s just reality. Go with a dwarf cedar cultivar, or read up on basic landscaping choices for homeowners that fit smaller yards. Better to plant the right tree than to fight the wrong one for thirty years.