Excessive Summer Heat Damages Green Giant / American Pillar Arborvitae Thuja?

Green Giant Arborvitae is a native plant nowhere as it is a new genetics, in commercial distribution for over 50 years. For native plants it is easy to tell if an environmental factor such as heat damages them as they will compete poorly and not exist in hot climates.

Green Giant Arborvitae are commercially grown on a large scale from mid Florida to about mid Wisconsin. Large scale is relevant because propagators will not invest their money and labor into a plant which is susceptible to a common environmental factor, such as heat in central Florida.

While heat does not damage the Green Giant Arborvitae, it is a common knowledge in the nurseryman community that they slow down their growth in the Summer, most of their growth comes in the early Summer and the Fall. Therefore, we run the overhead sprinklers in the daytime to cool the plants and create humidity (keep plant tissue soft), although water absorption happens at night and not during the day.

Green Giant Arborvitae Thuja in the Summer, somewhere in the Midwest