Throughout my 46 years, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the arborvitae. My earliest memory is a rather sour one, based on its initially off-putting aroma coupled with a neighbor’s harsh and ugly pruning technique on the bush that stood between our yards. That first impression stuck, and when I saw it used so ubiquitously in yards and landscapes around the world, the distaste was only re-enforced.
Over the years, however, my taste changed. My assessment evolved. The usefulness of the arborvitae began to change my mind. Coupled with a re-examination of its form and attributes, the transformation was complete when I watched a hedge of it going up in Ogunquit, Maine, and upon closer study I noticed its beautiful scale-like foliage, and the way it could so gorgeously accentuate its chartreuse overtones in the afternoon sunlight.
It is possible to change, to refine taste, to offer another chance at something you once disliked. I like that lesson. I like that possibility.
