Description: The largest hemlock, with long, slender, often fluted trunk; narrow, conical crown of short, slender, horizontal or slightly drooping branches; and very slender, curved, and drooping leader.

Height: 30-45m

Diameter: 0.9-1.2m

Needles: evergreen; spreading in two rows; 6-20mm long. Flat, flexible, rounded at tip, very short-stalked. Shiny dark green above, with two broad, whitish bands and indistinct green edges, often with tiny teeth beneath.

Bark: reddish-brown to grey-brown, thick, deeply furrowed into broad, scaly ridges; cut surface of inner bark red.

Twigs: very slender, yellow-brown, finely hairy, rough with peglike bases.

Cones: 2-2.5cm long; elliptical, brown, stalkless; with many rounded, elliptical cone-scales; hanging down at ends of twigs; paired, long-winged seeds.

Habitat: Moist, acid soils, especially flats and lower slopes; in dense pure stands and with Sitka Spruce and other conifers.

Range: S Alaska southeast along Pacific coast to NW California; also SE British Columbia south in Rocky Mountains to N Idaho and NW Montana; to 600m along coast; to 1800m inland.

Western Hemlock is one of the most common trees in the Pacific Northwest, forming vast, dense groves. Indians of southeastern Alaska used to make coarse bread from the inner bark.

Information: Audubon (1980)

Source: Weasdale Nurseries, Newbiggin-on-Lune, Cumbria.

Purchased: 1993.03.16 by Barnard Castle Doctors, one specimen at 5-6ft, ten each at 24-36" and 12-18" of "hedging" grade.

Planted: 5-6' specimen 1993.04.02, US Strip, B46G, at NW corner of the "Pacific Northwest Temperate Rainforest" zone. Three of 2-3' ones on same date in same zone. Four more small ones same weekend in barn triangle and others dotted about. Quite a lot were heeled in in the garden.

Progress: the specimen tree, at B46G, seemed to make no progress at all for a couple of years, looking rather unhappy and emaciated. The very dry summer of 1995 didn't help much, but since then it has looked much better and has really enjoyed the wet summer of 1998, making it to 3.1 m (plus another 0.3 m or so in the drooped-over leader) by 1998.10.07 and around 6.0m by 2004.09.27 after another wet summer. Owing to some rethinking of the planting, a few of the other trees have been moved. Those heeled in were moved to pots after a couple of years, and planted out later. Several were used in a screening hedge (which was their original purpose) but did not thrive at all and will shortly be removed. Some of the least disturbed, on good sites, are starting to look good and are about 5m tall, but overall, we think that our summers are rather too dry most years for these trees.

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