Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca' is the blue form of the Atlas Cedar, selected for needles with a particularly pronounced waxy coating that renders them a consistent, saturated steel-blue year-round. It starts with the tidy pyramidal outline common to young conifers, but the form is temporary. Given decades and adequate space, the tree widens and flattens, the lower branches sweeping outward at half its total height, the whole structure acquiring the open, irregular quality that makes mature specimens appear to have grown into their landscape rather than been placed in it.

The growth rate is rapid when young, then gradually slows as the tree settles into its long middle age. Heights of 60 feet are common; 100 feet is possible in ideal conditions over many generations. The waxy needles that give the cultivar its blue cast also make it genuinely drought-resistant once roots are established — an attribute that becomes more valuable as summers grow drier. Pruning the lower branches is tempting but counterproductive, as it produces an awkward, misshapen silhouette. This is a tree to plant once, in an open position with no competitors, and then leave entirely to itself.