Columnar Tree Dreaming: 'Van Den Aker' Narrow Weeping Alaska Cedar

Another day, another columnar tree that I've come across that is worth documenting here on the blog.  This time, it is from a different source.  I've posted about the list from Amy @ Pretty Purple Door in the past, but I recently came across this list from Savvy Gardening that lists a series of "Narrow Trees for tight spaces".  On the list are some of the trees I've covered before including the Sky Pencil Holly and the Amanogawa Japanese Flowering Cherry.  But, there are also a couple of new (to me) trees that I think are worth documenting here in my [tree dreaming] file.

I'll post one today and cover the other one in a separate post.

The tree that I'm documenting today is the "Van Den Aker" Narrow Alaska Cedar.   It is a narrow (very narrow!) columnar conifer that Savvy Gardening has at #10 on their list.

From SavvyGardening.com comes this description:

"Skinny" is how they describe it in their piece and talk about how it is the 'thinnest of all the weeping Alaska cedar' trees.

Those of you who've been reading over the years might remember that I've posted about Weeping Cedars before.  It started in September of 2017, when I wrote one of these *very* [tree dreaming] posts about Weeping Alaskan Cedars. And by Spring of 2018, I came across a small one at Home Depot and bought it immediately.  Throughout the Summer, it seemed to be healthy and establishing itself, but it wasn't meant to be.  Despite the fact that I applied Wilt-Pruf on the tree to help preserve it throughout the Winter, it appears that the cold weather got to the tree.  Come Spring of 2019, the tree had stopped growing, was dropping plenty of needles and was turning brown.  It fought back and tried to grow, but in the end, the tree was lost.

Just recently a couple of weeks ago, I posted a view of the fenceline that housed that Weeping Alaskan Cedar tree and talked about how I needed to replace it with a columnar conifer.

All of which is to say that this Van Den Akker Narrow Alaskan Cedar (Chamaecyparis nootakatensis) - that some people are labeling as a "Green Arrow Alaskan Cedar" is quite interesting to me

I've come across a few online nurseries that have the tree including this listing from Kigi Nursery that shows they have both very young (< 1 year old growth) and middle-aged (6-7 years of growth) in stock.  They state that it 'grows 2 feet per year' and tops out at 20 feet tall around the age of 10.  That would indicate (I think) that the 6-7 year old tree could be 10' to 12' tall?  Seems tall to me, but they're asking $200, so perhaps that's accurate?

Here's the photo from Kigi Nursery's listing where you can see this beauty shooting straight up in it's very narrow form:

This is not my photo - it is from Kigi Nursery. Source here. 

Both the listing for the Van Der Akken Narrow Weeping Alaskan Cedar and the Green Arrow Cedar call for planting the trees in "Full Sun" and both show to be hardy to our zone (5b), but the Green Arrow is listed down to Zone 4 - which makes me give it a little bit of preference here.  The Morton Arboretum calls out the Weeping Cedar to be hardy for our Chicago-area zone (5b).

The Green Arrow Alaskan Cedar seems to be a little bit wider than the Van Der Akken variety, but look at this photo that shows a grouping of the Green Arrow Weeping Alaskan Cedars together.  Quite a statement, right?

This is not my photo, but is from the listing on The Tree Center.  Original Source found here.

Maybe that's a idea for the southern fence line that I posted about in January and called for a series of columnar trees.

I don't think I've come across trees like this locally, but perhaps they can be ordered from a nursery like the Growing Place in Naperville?  Or...who knows...maybe I'll order one online and *cross my fingers* that it'll make it.

As I post more of these 'tree dreaming posts' this Winter,  I've decided to do a property inventory of my columnar tree dreams.  These are trees that if I come across, I'd be hard-pressed to not add to our yard:

•  The Amanogawa Japanese Flowering Cherry tree - a columnar variety that's hardy to Zone 5b. 
• This post that references a compilation from Pretty Purple Door that includes the columnar Goldspire Ginko. 
• A columnar Norway Spruce - an evergreen that can (I think) be sourced locally (not online).
• A Slender Hinoki Cypress (technically a shrub) that is home in a Japanese garden.
• A couple of 'white' columnar trees:  Dakota Pinnacle Birch and Swedish Aspen.
• Now this Columnar Eastern White Pine - that I hope would be disease resistant.  
• In 2018, I posted about these Sky Pencil Holly narrow shrubs.  
• We have a small Weeping White Spruce that I planted in 2019 in our backyard.  
• Late January 2020:  Van Den Aker Narrow Alaskan Weeping Cedar (and Green Arrow Weeping Cedar)