I am laying out the details of my wife's new garden arbor, and have a question regarding my choices of lumber. While I'd love to use redwood, we're not lucky enough in Virginia to have it stocked on the shelves of every BORG in the neighborhood. I could use white cedar, but I have a few hundred dollars in HD gift cards, and was hoping to just buy my dimensional lumber there, and mill it myself. My local HD does not stock traditional douglas fir, but does stock something called "hem fir". I'm assuming this is some sort of hybrid using hemlock and douglas fir? For those that know, can I use this "hem fir" on this outdoor arbor project and expect the same/close results as I'd get using straight douglas fir?

FYI...I plan to stain, then topcoat the arbor with General Finishes' Outdoor Oil.

Thanks!!

- Keith