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View Full Version : Taking down a tree - cedar?



JohnT Fitzgerald
07-01-2008, 9:06 AM
I hate taking down full grown trees, but we have one near the house that just has to come down. I think it's some sort of cedar, although I'm not sure. it has 'flaky' bark on the trunk, which is about 24" at its base but rapidly spreads out into multiple limbs. it's maybe 30' tall an dvery broad - I think the previous owner had it 'flat topped', so maybe it should be even taller. the needles are about an inch long, and after they fall off and dry up they are very stiff and can be very painful if stepped on. I don't have a pic - I'll try to post one later. Does anyone know if Cedars grow on Cape Cod? or are there other trees that might fit the description?

Al Wasser
07-01-2008, 10:33 AM
If it has a true needle for a leaf it isn't a juniper or a (misnomer)cedar. These guys have scales for leaves. It sounds more like you have a pine or fir or spruce

Randy Cohen
07-01-2008, 12:07 PM
sounds like a spruce from the description of the needles.

Lee Schierer
07-01-2008, 12:17 PM
sounds like a spruce from the description of the needles.
That was my thought as well. Cedars have stringy bark. Spruce trees are relatively common in New England around homes.

JohnT Fitzgerald
07-01-2008, 12:21 PM
A tree company sent someone out to look at it, and he said it's a Japanese Yew.

Richard M. Wolfe
07-01-2008, 8:30 PM
One of these days I'd like to take a course in conifer identification. :) I don't know how to ID them and don't know anyone else around here who does. The strange thing is that there are a number of different species growing here in town where they have been planted but nothing native but a couple or three juniper (mainly Ashe Juniper). I imagine it's the same throughout the country so don't look for a native species to cover everything in town. The same goes for broadleaf species.

JohnT Fitzgerald
07-09-2008, 9:50 AM
Well, it comes down this friday. Very sad about the tree, but excited about the space it will open up. According to the person from the tree company, it's a Japanese Yew - which is actually usually a bush - and it's easily the biggest one he's ever seen. someone took a lot of care to shape it into a tree over the years. He used to work at a cemetary near Boston that had some that were 30-ish years old that they were just starting to shape into a tree-shape....and they were not even close to being like this one.

I got more of the story from my neighbor. His mother used to own our place, and before that her parents (my neighbor's grandparents). His grandfather planted it about 75 years ago - no telling how old it was when he planted it, but that conservatively puts it at 80+ years old. I'm thinking of asking the tree company to save me a few of the heftier limbs (maybe 8-12" diameter) and then finding someone to mill them down so I can make some sort of 'keepsake' for my neighbor - I thought he'd appreciate something from the bush/tree his grandfather planted.