Woody Plants IV: Thuja plicata 'Aurea'

This summer, I went camping in Yosemite's Tuolumne Meadows at an elevation of 8600 feet.  Riding back down to the Central Valley, I watched the forest change from conifers to a mix of conifers and broad-leaf trees.  In the middle of this transition, I began to notice a number of cedars with their bright green sprays of scale-like leaves.  Given my interest in filling my yard with woody plants, I decided I should plant a cedar somewhere on the property.  

With research, I believe I determined what those cedars on the drive down were--the incense cedar or Calocedrus decurrens.  I found one at my local nursery, but it was in a large container and too expensive, so I didn't take the leap and buy it.  Happily for my pocketbook, I came to the conclusion that the arborvitae was a nobler tree than the incense cedar, and decided to get the native western species, Thuja plicata.

I found this small T. plicata at Berkeley Horticultural.  It's the variation of the species called 'Aurea' because the leaves have a golden tinge to them.  The tag said it would grow to ten feet tall in ten years.  Because this tree could potentially reach 200 feet, I planted it in the far back corner of my lot.  I hope some day when I'm dead, it will be towering over my neighbor's deodar cedar.

In Aristocrats of the Garden, Ernest H. Wilson says of Thuja plicata, "The Giant Arborvitae ... of western North America, in the valley of the Columbia River grows 200 feet tall and has a trunk clean of branches for fully 100 feet.  The story of this tree parallels that of the Douglas Fir. It was first discovered on the shores of Nootka Sound by Née [Luis Née], who accompanied Malaspina on his voyage around the world (1789-97) but it was not introduced until 1853, when William Lobb sent seeds to Messrs. Veitch, at Exeter, England."

Dirr, in the Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, says that Thuja plicata is "A beautiful conifer where properly grown ... probably better than T. occidentalis from an ornamental standpoint."  And the Hillier Guide says that T. plicata 'Aurea' is "an outstanding medium-sized tree with rich gold foliage."