| General Description | A highly elegant and unique specimen tree with flat sprays of golden yellow foliage. It is practically identical to the straight species in all but colour. Pyramidal when young, with drooping, heavily foliaged branches and a pronounced taper, which often bends away from the direction of prevailing winds. This species has the smallest needles in the Tsuga genus. |
| ID Characteristic | Identified by the general appearance of a medium to large sized golden yellow Christmas tree, with sweeping branches, and 2-ranked flat obovate needles and scaled reddish-brown bark. |
| Shape | Broad, upright, and conical to oval. These trees have strong central leaders and very rarely fork. |
| Landscape | Grown as a specimen tree for its unique colouring, or trained in to an elegant hedge when young. It is also used for screenings and groupings, and adds winter interest to a garden. Removing individual shoots as opposed to shearing the whole plants will yield a more visually pleasing form. This tree is considered highly flammable and placement next to houses is not suggested. |
| Propagation | This cultivar is produced via cuttings and grafting. None of the hemlocks sprout, and only rarely layer. Cuttings should be clean with no tears, and taken from semi-ripe branches in late summer. Rooting hormone should be applied, and the cutting placed in a pot with well drained potting mix approximately 2 inches deep. The soil should be kept moist and watered when the surface is dry. The pot should be kept out of direct sunlight in a greenhouse or indoors close to a window. Transplanting outdoors should occur in the late spring. |
| Cultivation | This tree is hardy to protected locations and moist, well drained soils. It is highly intolerant to pollution and drought, and should be watered frequently during dry spells and mulched generously. Acidic to neutral soils (pH 5.6 to 7.5) are preferred. It grows well in both full shade and full sun, the latter of which it is much more tolerant of compared to other golden cultivars, but only in colder climates. They are resistant to deer and black walnut juglone. It can withstand hard pruning and can be trained in to ornamental shapes. It transports well when balled and burlapped if root pruned. |
| Pests | This cultivar is susceptible to many of the problems experienced by the straight species, including needle blight, hemlock borers, leaf miners, cankers, blister rust, needle rust, and spider mites. The native straight species is currently threated by hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelgis tsugae), an invasive sap-sucking insect related to aphids that has proven very difficult to control in warmer areas of the United States. The adelgid is not yet known to be established in eastern Canada. Physiological problems include sun scorch at high temperatures (35 °C), which can kill several inches off branch ends. In addition, there is the potential for plant death during extended dry spells. Both of these problems, as well as insects and diseases, can be mitigated with proper cultural care and monitoring. |
| Notable Specimens | The Missouri Botanical Garden; St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America
The Iseli Nursey Gardens; Boring, Oregon, United States of America
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| Habitat | Horticultural origin. |
| Bark/Stem Description | The branches show a tendency to curve concavely downwards, while lower branches dip towards the ground. Twigs are slender, yellow-brown with darker red-brown pulvini, and pubescent. The bark is scaly when the tree is young which turns in to deep ridges and furrows as it ages. Freshly cut bark shows purple-ish streaking. |
| Flower/Leaf Bud Description | The leaves are linear and obtuse, flat and rounded at the tip with two white bands on the glaucous underside. They are very slightly wider towards the base, 15 mm to 20 mm long and 2 mm to 3 mm wide with a small petiole. Leaves are 2-ranked in opposite rows nearly evenly along each side of the twig. Buds are very small (1.5 to 2 mm) and ovoid with light brown and slightly hairy scales. |
| Flower Description | This cultivar is sterile, and has been described by the Missouri Botanical Garden as non-flowering. |
| Fruit Description | The cones appear at the tips of the branches and hang downwards like small ornaments. In appearance they are slender and stalked, ovoid, apex, nearly blunt, 1 cm to 2.5 cm long by approximately 0.5 cm to 1cm broad. The colouring is light green when young and brown when mature. They can be smooth margined or faintly toothed. The cones open slightly in the late autumn and remain on the tree until spring. |
| Colour Description | Green-yellow to golden yellow foliage with glaucous white bands on the undersides of leaves. The bark is red-brown to grey-brown when mature. Twigs are yellow-brown with red-brown pulvini. Cones are light green when immature and medium brown when mature. |
| Texture Description | Fine and lacy yet dense foliage, with a medium textured trunk when young and heavily textured and ridged trunk on mature trees. |