Why I love the Primo arborvitae

[MMJNICE]

I do: Bonsai Northwest. I worked on my Thuja Primo in this video (August 2024):

Yup I thought that Primo looked familiar ... i like the videos and the content very much. I think you have a video on regular thuja that I thought you did a really good job on as well

 

[bnw]

Yup I thought that Primo looked familiar ... i like the videos and the content very much. I think you have a video on regular thuja that I thought you did a really good job on as well

Thank you. After you asked about YouTube I realized that your username looked familiar - thanks for watching and commenting and the super glue tip.

Yes, I styled three Degroot's Spire thujas in some of my most recent videos. I'm looking forward to potting them together this spring.

 

[doc spring _work]

Been considering Arborvitae for bonsai recently.. I've never seen this variety before though! The tiny leaves are fantastic- do they handle zone 4-5 well? The local nursery (former employer) only really had columnar varieties such as dagroot's spire ECT. Would dagroot reduce anywhere near the same or do I need to look for this particular variety and start growing it for later foliage replacement/grafting

 

[bnw]

Been considering Arborvitae for bonsai recently.. I've never seen this variety before though! The tiny leaves are fantastic- do they handle zone 4-5 well? The local nursery (former employer) only really had columnar varieties such as dagroot's spire ECT. Would dagroot reduce anywhere near the same or do I need to look for this particular variety and start growing it for later foliage replacement/grafting

Arborvitae is a great species for zones 4-5 - they're native in those climate zones. The cold hardiness chart in Bonsai Heresy lists Thuja occidentalis the species as having a root kill temperature of -5 F, and two Thuja occidentalis cultivars as having root kill temperatures of 5 deg F. So very cold hardy. Just to be safe, since my Primos are in small pots, I provide protection when temperatures go below 15 deg F.

Degroot's Spire and Primo are much different varieties. The Primo has extremely fine foliage whereas Degroot's Spire is much more like the species. So Primo would work well for mame and shohin, but I would never try to make an extremely small bonsai out of Degroot's Spire.

 

[doc spring _work]

Arborvitae is a great species for zones 4-5 - they're native in those climate zones. The cold hardiness chart in Bonsai Heresy lists Thuja occidentalis the species as having a root kill temperature of -5 F, and two Thuja occidentalis cultivars as having root kill temperatures of 5 deg F. So very cold hardy. Just to be safe, since my Primos are in small pots, I provide protection when temperatures go below 15 deg F.

Degroot's Spire and Primo are much different varieties. The Primo has extremely fine foliage whereas Degroot's Spire is much more like the species. So Primo would work well for mame and shohin, but I would never try to make an extremely small bonsai out of Degroot's Spire.

Thought that would be the case, are you aware of any websites one might procure a primo... Given no one in my area sells them

 

[MMJNICE]

Your unintended shari has added some nice character IMO, I like it. Still a very nice looking tree.

I also had a major lower branch die on my Primo, which I ended up jinning. The branch had plenty of foliage and seemed to be healthy and growing, then suddenly, dead.

Wondering if you did any root work like maybe cutting a ugly surface root? That could have caused it if it was attached by a life line running up the trunk. That seems to have happened to me on one of my larger trees. Also would be interested if that would cause part of your trunk to die like my tree, especially since you said it was a rather thick branch with lots of foliage. Thuja do seem to have a lot of deadwood when collected in the wild so it makes sense.

 

[MMJNICE]

Thank you. After you asked about YouTube I realized that your username looked familiar - thanks for watching and commenting and the super glue tip.

Yes, I styled three Degroot's Spire thujas in some of my most recent videos. I'm looking forward to potting them together this spring.

Should be a killer group planting!

 

[bnw]

Thought that would be the case, are you aware of any websites one might procure a primo... Given no one in my area sells them

I did a quick search and found quite a few places that sell them, although most places are sold out. Looks like they are available here: https://twogreenthumbs.com/pages/about-janit from Seattle. They come from Iseli Nursery in Oregon, so the closer you get to Oregon, the more available they will be. I got mine from a nursery in Washington.

 

[bnw]

Wondering if you did any root work like maybe cutting a ugly surface root? That could have caused it if it was attached by a life line running up the trunk. That seems to have happened to me on one of my larger trees. Also would be interested if that would cause part of your trunk to die like my tree, especially since you said it was a rather thick branch with lots of foliage. Thuja do seem to have a lot of deadwood when collected in the wild so it makes sense.

I definitely cut some roots, and that might have caused it, but I can't recall cutting any major roots. My thought at the time was that perhaps I wired it too heavily - since it was a large branch, I used a bit more force to bend it downward. But more importantly, I wired it in early summer, which I understand now to not be a dangerous time to wire, as the cambium is really active; I think I caused slippage/damage to that branch by wiring during the wrong time of year.