Cedars, Dutch treeguide at www.bomengids.nl, European trees

The Cedar-genus (Cedrus)

What kind of Cedar species are you dealing with.

There are two Cedar species common in gardens in the Netherlands: Deodara cedar and the Atlas cedar. The cedar of lebanon is so rear you have to look for it. Ceders are often found in gardens: they are quite popular and sometimes mistaken for Larch. Needles are in bunches on short twigs and alone on longer twigs. They bloom in the authumn (September) and shed their cones and seeds in the spring. Cones are like small bee-heaves.
Flowers in authumn are less big and like candles to small peer-shaped bulb sizes, with scales. The cones thus fall apart on the trees.

Differences between the most common species are easy to spot. However when less common individuals are encountered it does get hard. Beste clue is probably the size of the needles then.
Cedars come from Afrika (Atlas Ceder form Atlas mountains), middle-east (Cedar of Lebanon, form Turkey to Lebanon) and himalaya (Deodar Cedar).

1. Blue-ish needles. Looks like a fir tree, but branches have more space between them and are mostly upward. Blooms massively in authumn: Atlas cedar Cedrus_atlantica . This species also has a green version and then is easy to mixup with the Cedar of Lebanon.
2. Tree is very freshly-colored green. Tip of the tree often hanging-over Longest needles of all Cedars. Seems "fluffy" because of the needles. Has seldom cones, but sometimes it does. Deodara cedar Cedrus_deodara.
Needles 2.5 to 5.5 cm. Bark a bit purple to greyish.
3. Not blue-ish and no tip that hangs over. If it grows older the branches for plateaus. : cedar_of_Lebanon (Cedrus libani).

Needles little olonger than Atlas. Bark is less grey than Atlas: bit more brown. Rare in Netherlands.

The needles can be a clue finding out what species you are dealing with. Beneath a comparison of the needles of the three species. Always to the left the Deodara_cedar, in the middle the Atlas cedar (blue variant) and to the right the cedar_of_Lebanon. As you can see the needles of the Deodara_cedar are by far the longest, Atlas cedar has the shortest needles and the needles of the cedar of Lebanon are just a bit longer than the Atlas's.