I was wondering if anyone could ID this shrub in front of my house. I like it very much - it undulates when you touch it. It seems to be in the evergreen category and has a berry.

Reminds me of arborvitae.

I have an arborvitae and it is taller and thinner than this. This doesn't seem to get taller. It has separate roots that come out, so it can grow wider.

to NGA!

Can you tell us where you live? It looks like an Incense Cedar - Calocedrus decurrens - a West Coast tree.

Daisy

I'm in Minnesota (Prince's home :)
Cedar variety seems like a good guess as there are two huge cedar trees in my back yard, so the original landscapers might have liked cedar.

The easiest ID is to look at the seed pods. I couldn't see them really well in your photo but they are very distinctive. They should look like this:

https://www.google.com/search?...

Daisy

I haven't seen something that looks like that, just small round berries that dry out later and are still in that small, round shape.

I don't know....we had a big arborvitae like that. If you look on the other side, are there around 4 large "trunks"? It may also be two plants growing together.

Check out Thuja occidentalis; it is hardy in your area.

What are the brown things in the tree in your second photo?

Reminds me of Juniperus: http://garden.org/plants/searc...

I just got a reply from a master gardener at MN Extension and she seems to think it's an arborvitae/thuja, but it's so different from the arborvitae I planted which grows straight up. But perhaps there are different variations of the arborvitae plants...?
It does have different trunks/roots - at least 2. You might be right about it being two plants growing together, but it seems a little more like the roots grow out making the plant into different sections.

For compariosn, images of Thuja
Eastern Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis)
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/tre...

A northern white cedar is also called an Arborvitae (Thuja Occidentalist).

Cardinals love to make their nests in this bush!

If you at any point decide to remove it (usually if they get gangly looking), get ready for giant roots. I mean, giant, and they go straight to the center of the earth. LOL

But yours looks very healthy- lucky for that size bush!!

Daisyl: The brown things are the berries which have dried (into seeds?).
AlyssaBlue: Yeah, that confused me that several different things seem to be called Thuja Occidentalis. The white cedar does resemble it, but it grows so tall, I don't think it's exactly the same. Mine is only about 5 feet tall and isn't getting any taller in 6 years. I just saw a photo of Eastern Red Cedar that seems to resemble it too.

Dani33 said:Daisyl: The brown things are the berries which have dried (into seeds?).
AlyssaBlue: Yeah, that confused me that several different things seem to be called Thuja Occidentalis.

Thuja occidentalis is the botanical name but the plant has many different common names.

There are several different types of T. occidentalis; some are more compact, some grow more slowly, etc.
http://www.bachmans.com/Garden...

The Master Gardener says White Cedar is another name for Thuja Occidentalis.
Daisyl: Thanks for the link. The ones similar to it in height are Holmstrup and Tecknito, so perhaps one of those is the variety. I appreciate all your comments!

True cedars and incense cedars will not grow in Minnesota (too cold). But the common name White cedar is a vernacular name for arborvitae here in Minnesota, especially the wild arborvitaes. Your brown "berries" are actually the seed cones, and prove your plant is an arborvitae. Eastern Red cedar is actually a juniper and has seed cones that actually do look like berries that are blue. As you have discovered, there are many available forms of arborvitae, from large trees to midgets that only grow 10 inches tall. Technito has a foliage growth pattern unlike your specimen, but it matches the Holmstrup cultivar very well. And Holmstrup has been in the trade for a long time, while Technito is relatively new and not widely available, even though it comes from our own Bailey Nursery here in Minnesota.

I live twelve miles west of Paisley Park. No more traffic jams there, but there are still a lot of people.

Hi Leftwood,
I just got an email from a professor here at the University saying she thinks it might be a False Cypress. One of the descriptions calls it "undulating" which is what is so characteristic of my shrub - when you touch it, it undulates. I will try to get a closer photo of the berry and maybe that will make it more clear whether it's Arborvitae or False Cypress.
I went to the showing of Purple Rain at the Target Center. It was fun to be in such a friendly crowd, swaying to Prince's music. :)
Danielle