Worth knowing:
The impressive and fast-growing North African Atlas Cedar grows initially conical and develops the wide appearance with a growth height of up to 25 meters over time. The branches spread multi-stemmed and irregular and giving each tree its unique look. In young trees, the bark has a smooth grey colour, whereas the bark of matured plants show an imbricate black-grey colouring. The wood is extremely resilient with a pleasant fragrance. The shiny bluey or grey-green needles are about 2 cm long, grow sporadically at the long sprouts and in tufts at smaller sprouts, and last not longer than seven years.
Natural Location:
The North African Atlas Cedar has its natural habitat in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, where it grows at 1000 to 1800 meters above sea level. Since the 19th century it is also cultivated in South Europe and can nowadays even be found in harboured northern areas.
Cultivation:
Seed propagation indoors is possible throughout the year. To increase the germinability, you should initially put the seeds in a sealed container with moist sand and keep it in the refrigerator for about six weeks. Then, place them for another 24 hours in a bowl with lukewarm water for priming. After that, plant the seeds about 1 cm deep into moist potting compost or into moist, nutritious and well-drained garden soil, and cover the seed container with clear film to prevent the earth from drying out. Don’t forget to make some holes in the clear film and take it every second or third day completely off for about 2 hours. That way you avoid mold formation on your potting compost. Place the seed container somewhere bright and warm with a temperature between 17°C and 22° Celsius and keep the earth moist, but not wet. The first seedlings will come up after three to twelve weeks.
Place:
The Atlas Cedar prefers sheltered and bright, up to full sunny places. With its irregular growth form it best shows to advantage as a solitary plant.
Care:
Especially young plants need sufficient watering, but see that you avoid waterlogging. From its second year on, fertilizing with fertilizer for conifers is possible, but in planted trees usually not necessary.
During the winter:
In late autumn, you may provide the root area of especially young trees with a layer of brush wood and foliage. That way the plant gets a long-term fertilizer and a good frost-protection. Over the years the tree will become frost-hard up to -16° Celsius.
Picture credits:
- © © Tangopaso - Public domain - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/
- © Frank Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Frank Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Tangopaso - Public domain - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/
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