A common question gardeners share when contemplating a new plant for their garden is, “how big will it get?” In addition to growth rate titles such as Dwarf, Intermediate and Large, we provide approximate, average expected growth of established plants in a measurement of annual growth, i.e. 3-6 inches per year. Using basic math skills, the gardener may easily estimate not only the age of the specimen they are currently viewing, but also how large it may become in 5, 10, 20 or more years.

We have also established a Garden Size designation for all of our plants, defined as the size of a plant when it has matured to an age and dimension that it has optimum architectural and aesthetic use in the average garden. This can occur between 10 and 25 years of age depending on the plant. You will begin to see the Garden Size, designated as height by width (H’ x W’), included in our plant listings. Over time, we will include this size designation with each plant we list.

We hope that you find our growth rate information to be helpful in learning about and choosing your next garden plants.

Ed Remsrola discusses conifer growth rates in his blog here and here.

Priceless With Time
Growth timeline of Picea glauca ‘Pendula’.