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. obtusa – Cupressus obtusa – Hinoki Cypress – Hinoki False Cypress – This slow growing, broadly, conical, coniferous tree from Japan grows 60-120′ feet tall and 20′ feet wide but is usually half that in cultivation. It can develop a 4′ foot diameter trunk covered in rusty colored stringy bark. It produces glandless, opposite, blunt, deep green mature leaves, bright silvery white stripped beneath, are borne in 2 unequal pairs, leaves release an unpleasant smell when crushed. The green, then brown, female cones are to 3/4″ across and have 8-12 scales. Male cones are spherical, orange-brown, and to ½” across. In Japan it is valued for its timber. It’s cultivars which are dwarf and colored are more likely seen in gardens.
‘Gracilis’ – is pyramidal with dark green leaves
Zones 4-9
