Things my garden center didn t tell me My local garden center didn t tell me that when diluted with water to a 10 M solution Thuja occidentalis became a cure for some sort of disease They did tell me though that when planted in the ground and fed water through its roots Thuja occidentalis becomes an attractive hedge They also told me to plant it in full sun to light shade and that it would grow to about 12 15 feet tall and 6 8 feet wide That turns out to be a good choice for my landscape because planting another spruce tree would have been too tall for the power lines that I planted it under Either my garden center is participating in a conspiracy to suppress the truth about Thuja occidentalis or this article is giving too much weight to the medicinal nature of the plant Elkspeak