“What a Spectacularly Beautiful Tree” — The Weeping Alaskan Cedar & Its Remarkable Background Story)

What a spectacularly beautiful tree. That was a comment we got on a recent video that we posted here on this channel about this, the Weeping Alaskan Cedar. It came from Julie Fuhrman, promptly followed by three lovely big red hearts. Hello I'm David Wilson for Over-the-Vest Nurseries and in that video I tell you all about it, how big it grows, where you can plant it in your garden, how you can use it, including decorating at holiday times, and a lot more information as well, including that it's a plant with an identity problem. Well here I am filming this on quite a nice day, would you believe, in early January. I think that shows how valuable it is in our winter garden. But you know what, evergreens like this are very valuable the whole year round, and this particular one is a time-tested, very dependable, and reliable variety, that if you're not growing it, we would encourage you to think about it. But if you are growing it, we'd be really interested to know how it's doing for you. So when you get a moment, post your comments here on our channel, and let us know how it's doing for you. But Julie, and everybody else, there's a whole lot more that I want to tell you about this fabulous tree. For instance, in its background there's some really interesting stories about its discovery and introduction. Now I should quickly mention that the original species, the one from which this selection is descended from, was collected by one of Scotland's famous plant hunters. It's really quite amazing when I think about it, the amount of plants that were introduced by these intrepid explorers that started out in Scotland. His name was Archibald Menzies, pronounced Mengus in Scotland. And he, along with other men like John Fraser, David Douglas, Robert Fortune, George Forrest, George Dawn, and a host of others, scoured the globe looking for new species that were new to science. Braving all sorts of very inhospitable conditions, sleeping out sometimes in desolate areas, sometimes in flea-ridden pits, what was called an inn, certainly dealing with disease and things like leeches that they would pick off their bodies on a night, and also having to deal sometimes with hostile natives and pirates, all in the name of science, all in an effort to bring back new species that would ultimately lead to many of the varieties that we grow and enjoy in our gardens today. Now young Archie was born and grew up in a place called Weem, way up in the north of Scotland, in the Highlands. He was part of the Mengus clan, and came from a family of gardeners. His father James was the head gardener to Sir Robert Mengus, the clan chief, and he had four brothers, and all of those were gardeners. His eldest brother William went to the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, and so he followed him there, and then Sir John Hope, who was the Regis Keeper at that time, directed him to go to the University of Edinburgh, where he studied medicine and surgery and chemistry and botany too. He joined the Royal Navy and became a ship surgeon, and that took him on several trips, and all the time, because he was a keen naturalist, he was out looking for new plants, and often sending back specimens to Sir Joseph Banks in Kew Gardens in London. And there's a famous story of once when he was in Santiago, Chile, and been hosted to a dinner by the Governor there, he noticed that at the table was a bowl of nuts that was set down for dessert. He took a few of those nuts, put them in his pockets, and then sprouted them on the way back on HMS Discovery to England, which led to the introduction of the famous monkey puzzle tree, Oricaria Oricana, that's celebrated for its exotic and unusual appearance. But the important part of the story that I want to tell you about, revolves around an expedition that he made in 1791, led by Commander George Vancouver, and the following year in 1792, in Nootka Sound, he collected the species that became eventually known as Nootka Tensis. Now whether you pronounce his name as Menzies, or Mengis, or the plant's name as Camycyprus, or one of the other names, I hope that whenever you grow and enjoy it in your garden, for the lovely, easy to grow, and very elegant specimen that it is, now you'll remember at least a little bit of the story, and the effort that all went into producing the beautiful plants that we're able to grow and enjoy in our garden. Now it's true that over time it can grow into quite a large specimen, but you know what, there's things you can do to keep it within bounds, and in the next video I'll be showing you some tips and tricks that I've used here during the last 25 years, to grow this plant in a relatively tight space. So stay tuned, and if you like the kind of information that we're giving you here on our channel, it would be really great if you could share these videos, like them of course, and also subscribe if you haven't already, and of course if you're in need of more inspiration and support, be sure to visit some of our partnering garden centers. There's hundreds of them located all over our mid-atlantic and northeastern states, so be sure to stop in, because in season you'll discover all sorts of really interesting plants. This is David Wilson. Enjoy your gardening, it's good for us, and it's good for our environment too.