Description
Chamaecyparis – False Cypress –
There are about 8 species of monoecious, evergreen, coniferous trees, in this genus. They occur in Eastern Asia and North America. They have flattened sprays of scale like, overlapping adult leaves, to 1/4″ long, and longer ovate to linear juvenile leaves to 3/8″ long, in gold, bluish, bronze and green. The spherical or angular female cones have 2,. Occasionally 3-5 seeds on each shield-like scale, and most ripen in the first autumn. The spherical or ovoid male cones, usually to 1/4″ long, are borne in spring. False cypresses are used as specimen trees and for hedging, they have given rise to a vast number of cultivars, many dwarf or slow growing, and suitable for rock gardens or bonsai. They can be fast growing if conditions are to their liken. Contact with the foliage may aggravate skin allergies.
Tolerant of alkaline soils but best grown in moist but well drained, preferably neutral to slightly acidic soil in full sun. Trim hedges from late spring to early autumn, but do not cut into older wood.
Prone to spruce mites, twig blight, root rot, and needle blight.
C. pisifera – Cupressus pisifera – Sawara Cypress – Sawara False Cypress – This vigorous, initially broad, conical, coniferous tree with an open crown from Japan reaches 70-150′ feet tall and 15′ feet wide but is usually half that in cultivation. It has hard, fissured, finely peeling into thin strips, rusty brown bark. It pairs of sharp pointed, mid green mature leaves, marked white beneath, with small glands and free spreading tips, are produced in flattened sprays. Angular female cones, to 1/4″ long, are green maturing to deep brown, with 6-8 scales. Black male cones are spherical, to 1/4″ across.
‘Squarrosa’ – ‘Squarrosa Veitchii’ – grows 65′ feet tall and has soft young, deep green to blue green foliage, to 3/8″ long, with free tips. It is similar in habit to ‘Plumosa’ but tends to open up, losing the inner foliage. Foliage turn dull purple in autumn
Zones 5-8
