Oriental White Cedar, Oriental Arbovitae, Chinese Arbor-vitae 'Baker'

A number of cultivars of both the Oriental and the Eastern Arborvitae often develop ugly, as this 'Baker' one. Being a northerner, I know...Read More this plant mostly from pictures in plant catalogs of cheap plants and magazines, as it is more of a southern conifer. However, my neighbors down the street in southeast PA planted two at the entrance of their home walkway, a poor placing against the rules of landscape design. They never really looked good, but this shot shows them looking poorly. The next year they looked even worse and the homeowner took them out. The species comes from northeast Asia, and the mother species and some cultivars are considered good by many.