Evergreen treePrivacy screenHedgeSpecimenShade gardenNativeFast growing

Eastern Hemlock

Tsuga canadensis

One of the most shade-tolerant evergreens, a graceful native with fine, dark needles on soft, drooping branches and small cones like ornaments, for screens, hedges and specimens. It wants cool summers and moist, acid, well-drained soil, and dislikes heat, drought and wind. Hemlock woolly adelgid is a major threat.

See Eastern Hemlock in your yardEarly access is free. Join the waitlist.

Eastern Hemlock: whole plant — Photo: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Mature size: 55 × 30 ft; 17 × 9 m, tall × wide
Hardiness: Zones 3a–7b; USDA
Sun: Part sun to full shade
Water: Medium to moist

Eastern Hemlock at its mature size

A mature Eastern Hemlock grows 40 to 70 feet tall and 25 to 35 feet wide, taller than most people.

Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.

Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, The Morton Arboretum.

Through the year

What Eastern Hemlock looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.

In leaf · Year-round

Fine dark green needles on drooping branch tips.

Photos

Eastern Hemlock: fall color — Fall color · Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Eastern Hemlock: detail — Detail · Plant Image Library, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Growing Eastern Hemlock

Grows well in: The Northeast and the Midwest.
Growth rate: Fast
Good for: Privacy screen, hedge, specimen, shade garden, and fast growing
Leaves: Evergreen
Native to: Eastern North America

Spacing for a hedge

VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Eastern Hemlock, that’s about 30 ft apart, center to center.

Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.