Incense cedars are aromatic with upward-curving branches candelabra-like with age. It is native from Oregon to California, southwestern Nevada and northern Baja California. It’s 100-150 feet tall in the wild and lives to 1000+ years (plant a big tree for the future); 50 feet tall is more usual in cultivation. Branchlets form fan-like sprays with scaled foliage. Reddish-brown, deeply-furrowed scaly bark is typical with age, and cones are often described as resembling duckbills when they open to release their seed. John Muir said, “no waving fern-frond in shady dell is more unreservedly beautiful in form and texture, or half so inspiring in color and spicy fragrance.” Clearly, for the jaded Calocedrus decurrens needs to be reconsidered.

Mature size: typically ~50 feet tall in garden settings

Minimum temperature: -20F