© The Dabney Nursery
Plant: Morgan - Arborvitae
Arborvitae · Platycladus orientalis 'Morgan'
Size: 1 gal
Light
Mature size
More about this plant
‘Morgan’ is a dense, dwarf conifer with a neat conical shape and soft, feathery foliage. Its color changes through the year. New spring growth emerges bright chartreuse and deepens to darker green through summer and fall. In winter the foliage turns copper to orange, adding warmth when much of the garden is dormant.
This cultivar of Chinese, or Oriental, arborvitae belongs to the cypress family (Cupressaceae). Australian nurseryman Mal Morgan selected it from a seedling in the 1970s and named it after himself. Andrews Nursery of Sydney, Australia, introduced it to the trade.
‘Morgan’ grows slowly, adding about 2 to 3 inches a year. It was originally expected to mature at 20 to 28 inches tall and 12 to 16 inches wide. Older specimens, however, have reached 8 ft tall and 6 ft wide or more, so plan for possible long-term growth beyond its early dwarf size.
Use ‘Morgan’ as a specimen plant, in foundation plantings, or as a low hedge.
- Full Sun
- Grows to 4 ft tall and 4 ft wide
- Hardy in USDA zones 3-7
- Evergreen foliage
- Native plant
Plant description
‘Morgan’ is a dense, dwarf conifer with a neat conical shape and soft, feathery foliage. Its color changes through the year. New spring growth emerges bright chartreuse and deepens to darker green through summer and fall. In winter the foliage turns copper to orange, adding warmth when much of the garden is dormant.
This cultivar of Chinese, or Oriental, arborvitae belongs to the cypress family (Cupressaceae). Australian nurseryman Mal Morgan selected it from a seedling in the 1970s and named it after himself. Andrews Nursery of Sydney, Australia, introduced it to the trade.
‘Morgan’ grows slowly, adding about 2 to 3 inches a year. It was originally expected to mature at 20 to 28 inches tall and 12 to 16 inches wide. Older specimens, however, have reached 8 ft tall and 6 ft wide or more, so plan for possible long-term growth beyond its early dwarf size.
Use ‘Morgan’ as a specimen plant, in foundation plantings, or as a low hedge.
- Foliage
- Scale-like in adults, ovate and obtuse to bluntly acute, yellowish green to grayish green below with a pustular gland near the apex, appressed to the branchlets in overlapping opposite pairs, darker green above and paler below, appearing bronze coloured during the winter months.
- Fruit
- The cone is oblong and light brown, 1/3 to 1/2 inch long, and yellow when young.
- Bark & stems
- The attractive grayish brown to reddish brown bark has shallow furrows and exfoliates on the branches and trunks of mature trees; the tree has a dominant trunk.
- Native range
- Central & E. Canada to N. Central and Eastern North America
