Green Giant and upright juniper — full sun, salt tolerant, deer resistant. In stock in Newton, New Hampshire.
If your last evergreen screen got stripped to five feet over the winter, you did not do anything wrong — you planted the wrong plant. Most arborvitae is not deer resistant. Emerald Green, American Pillar, North Pole and every other Thuja occidentalis is preferred winter browse, and on a property with real deer pressure an unprotected row of them will be eaten from the ground up. There are two answers that work in New England, and both of them also handle the other things that kill a screen here: full sun, road salt, wind and dry ground.
Green Giant is an arborvitae, but not the same species as the ones deer eat — it is a hybrid, and deer largely pass it by. Upright junipers are a different family altogether: resinous, prickly, genuinely unpalatable, and the toughest evergreen we sell for a hot, dry, salted roadside. Which one you want depends on how much room you have and what the site is like.
| Green Giant Arborvitae | Upright Juniper | |
|---|---|---|
| Deer | Resistant | Resistant — the most reliable group there is |
| Mature size | 30 ft tall × 10 ft wide | 12–20 ft tall × 4–8 ft wide by variety |
| Spacing | 5 ft on centre | 3–6 ft on centre by variety |
| Growth rate | Fast | Moderate |
| Sun | Full sun to part shade | Full sun only — it thins out in shade |
| Salt | Moderate tolerance | Salt tolerant — the pick for a road edge or a coastal lot |
| Site | Average ground, needs room | Dry, exposed, windy, sandy — hates wet feet |
| Starts at | $99 (#7, 4–6 ft) | $99 (3–4 ft) |
Choose Green Giant if you want a proper wall of green fast and you have ten feet of width to give it. Choose a juniper if the strip is narrow, the ground is dry or sandy, the site gets full sun and wind, or the plow throws salt at it every winter. That last one is the real divider: a juniper will shrug off a roadside that would brown out an arborvitae.
No plant is deer proof. "Deer resistant" means deer avoid it when there is anything else to eat. In a hard winter with deep snow and a large herd, deer will browse things they normally ignore. What these two give you is a screen that survives a normal New England winter without being eaten back — not a guarantee. Anyone promising you deer-proof is selling you something.
| Size | Price | In stock | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| #7, 4–6 ft | $99.00 | 68 | Buy |
| #15, 6–7 ft | $149.00 | Sold out | Buy |
| #15, 7–8 ft | $199.00 | Sold out | Buy |
| #20, 8–10 ft | $299.00 | Sold out | Buy |
Green Giant plants on 5 ft centres, so a 50 ft run is 11 trees. The larger grades are sold out for the season — the #7 at 4–6 ft is what is on the ground, and at $99 it is the cheapest deer resistant screen we have. Full detail on the Green Giant page.
Live prices and counts, straight from the yard. Every link opens the plant with an in-stock size already selected. Sold-out sizes grey out and move to the end.
Park grade, while it lasts. Two varieties are graded and priced as park grade rather than our top grade, which is why they sit at a third of the regular price: Emerald Sentinel native red cedar, #7 4–5 ft, $50 (regularly $149), and Fairview, #10 5–6 ft, $75 (regularly $199). Both are deer resistant and salt tolerant like the rest. For a long screening run where the plants are seen as a mass, they are the best value on the lot. For a short formal run where every plant is seen against the next, buy top grade instead — or call us first and we will tell you what to expect.
A screen is a straight run, so it is plants = length ÷ spacing, rounded up, plus one. Green Giant spaces at 5 ft, Taylor at 3 ft, Blue Point and Moonglow at 5 ft, Burk's at 4 ft, Hillspire at 6 ft. A 100 ft run is 21 Green Giant, 34 Taylor, or 18 Hillspire. The per-plant price drops automatically as the quantity goes up — 10+ is 5%, 25+ is 7.5%, 50+ is 10%, 100+ is 12.5%, counted per variety at one size. The hedge calculator does the arithmetic and the delivery band for you.
Green Giant, and effectively only Green Giant. It is a hybrid rather than a Thuja occidentalis, and deer largely leave it alone. Emerald Green, American Pillar, North Pole, Brandon and the rest of the occidentalis group are all browsed, some of them heavily.
No. They are one of the most reliably eaten evergreens in New England. If you have deer and you want that narrow formal look, Taylor juniper gets you closer to it than any arborvitae will.
Yes, and they are the most dependable group for it. The foliage is resinous and prickly and deer avoid it even under pressure. Every juniper on this page is rated deer resistant.
Upright junipers are the most salt tolerant evergreen screen we sell, which is why they are the right answer for a road frontage that gets plowed, a driveway edge, or a coastal lot taking wind off the water. They want full sun and ground that drains — give a juniper a wet, shady corner and it will thin out no matter how little salt reaches it.
Green Giant at $99 for a #7 at 4–6 ft, or Hillspire juniper at $99 for a 3–4 ft. If you are screening a long run and the plants will be seen as a mass rather than individually, the park-grade Emerald Sentinel at $50 is cheaper still.
Green Giant, by a distance. It is one of the fastest evergreens available and it finishes at 30 ft. The trade-off is width — it wants 10 ft, so it is the wrong plant for a narrow strip.
Young plants are browsed harder than mature ones across every species, deer resistant or not, because the new growth is softer. The plants on this page are still the right choice — they are simply less attractive than the alternatives, not invisible.
Green Giant at 5 ft. Junipers vary — 3 ft for Taylor, 4 ft for Burk's, 5 ft for Blue Point and Moonglow, 6 ft for Hillspire. Getting this wrong is the most common and most expensive mistake, so use the hedge calculator before you order.
From our yard in Newton, New Hampshire. We deliver up to 75 miles — most of New Hampshire, northeastern Massachusetts and southern Maine — install within 50 miles, and pickup is Monday to Friday at the nursery.
