Pancake Arborvitae

Light Needs

Full Sun

(6+ Hours Direct Sun)

Mature Height

12-18 Inches

Mature Spread

2-3 Feet

Growing Zones

4 to 8

Sometimes you need a problem-solver plant, and Pancake arborvitae is just that and then some. Its’ drought-tolerant, disease-resistant constitution is wrapped up in a tidy, low-profile evergreen package that is extremely useful in the toughest garden situations. Go ahead and site it in full sun in less-than-optimal soil because once established it can handle extreme heat and drought. It can even take a little shade. The finely textured, sage-green foliage turns a handsome gray-blue in winter, giving you yet another reason to love this carefree wonder.

As its name implies, this is a pancake of a shrub at just 12-18 inches tall and up to 3 feet wide. Its’ flat, dense habit is useful for blanketing hillsides, creating a low edge along hardscapes and serving as an evergreen groundcover in front of taller shrubs and perennials. It is especially attractive as a prostrate feature in rock gardens. This low-profile workhorse creates a beautiful gray-green foil for more colorful heat-loving flowering perennials like salvias, coneflowers (Echinacea), red-hot poker (Kniphofia), lavender, speedwell (Veronica), catmint (Nepeta), Russian sage (Perovskia), ornamental allium and tickseed (Coreopsis). It’s also wonderful combined with ornamental grasses.

Pancake Arborvitae Care

Plant in full sun in average soil—it even tolerates sandy soil and a little bit of shade. Dig a planting hole as deep as the root ball and twice as wide. Backfill the soil around the roots then firm the soil and water well. Water regularly the first season if rainfall is less than one inch per week. It’s a good idea to mulch around the plant after planting to help conserve moisture, cool the roots and shade out weeds. Pruning Pancake Arborvitae is not required, but you can snip off any bits in springtime that might have browned out over winter. No fertilizing is needed for these plants either.

Pancake Arborvitae Spacing

What Pancake arborvitae lacks in height (just 12-18 inches tall), it makes up for in breadth, attaining a mature width of up to three feet, so be sure to leave 18 inches all around for the plant to fill in. If you are planting more than one, you can place them a little closer, about a foot center-on-center. If you don’t like the bare space around the plants immediately after planting, you can fill in with annuals for the first year or two, until the shrub starts spreading.

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