Lawson cypress elwoodi Home care Growing from seeds Planting and care

Gender description

Cypress is a woody coniferous crop, more common in southern regions with mild winters, although some species are winter hardy. In Siberia and the Far East, tub content is used, when the plant is taken out into the street only in the warm season.

The native land of the cypress is the forests and plains of Japan, Taiwan, and North America. There, individual specimens can reach 70-100 m. The wide range of growth is the reason for a wide variety of species. In the XNUMXth century, the plant interested breeders with its openwork crown and bright needles, and, from that time, its active domestication began.

Today, a decorative cypress is a slender tree or shrub with a columnar, pyramidal or conical crown. Depending on the type, its branches are horizontally spread or droop along the trunk. The altered foliage looks like soft needles. Its color, depending on the variety and age of the plant, can vary from golden, yellow-green, light green to blue and dark green.

During the growing season, the ends of the shoots are covered with male and female flowers. Small bumps, after ripening, open up. Each scale releases 2 winged seeds, which can give viable shoots in the first year of the plant’s life.

The plant has a branched root system that develops well in soil with a neutral or slightly acidic pH.

Species and varieties

Today, 7 main varieties of coniferous crops are known, on the basis of which breeders have bred many varieties that differ in size, crown shape, and color of needles. The cypress species that are the most resistant to harsh climatic conditions are cultivated in Russia.

Pea cypress

Pea cypress is an unpretentious tree plant native to the Japanese islands. It is resistant to frost, feels good on wet soils. It grows very slowly, in 10 years it stretches only 40 cm. The tree has a branched crown in the form of a wide cone, formed by horizontally growing branches. It has beautiful blue-gray needles.

The following varieties of the cypress genus are most popular:

• Boulevard is a blue cypress tree. This is a low tree, up to 5 meters high. The crown has a shape reminiscent of a typeface. Differs in silver-blue needles with awl-shaped, curved needles. Loves good lighting, moist soil. It grows better in the southern regions, where there is no severe frost, frost-resistant.
• Filifera nana cypress is a fluffy shrub with a spherical crown that does not need to be formed. It grows well both indoors and outdoors under mild climatic conditions. It has a long life span – up to 300 years. It belongs to dwarf varieties – an adult plant does not exceed 50 cm.
• Filifera gracilis (Filifera Gracil) or filamentous – a tall shrub, reaching 5 meters. It has a weeping crown of a conical shape – its thin, drooping branches look like long threads. The needles are dark green, scaly. Very hardy.

Cypress Nutkansky

Young Nutkan cypress has a narrow or pyramid-shaped crown formed by ascending shoots with hanging ends. The dense brown bark cracks over time and leaves the trunk. The needles are dark green, scaly, with needles tapering to the top. The flowering period begins in April.

• Pendula (Weeping) is a drought-resistant tree, reaching a height of 15 meters. Hanging twigs form a weeping crown with dark blue needles. Differs in slow growth, rising by 20 cm per year. Unpretentious, tolerates shade well, although it feels better in places open to the sun. Does not require frequent feeding, but abundant watering is necessary.
• Glauka is a tree-type cypress tree up to 20 m high. The crown has the shape of a cone. In the lower wide part, it can reach 7 m in diameter. The needles are blue, scaly. The plant is frost-resistant.

Lawson’s cypress

Lawson’s cypress is a tall shrub with the shape of the branches and the color of the needles, reminiscent of thuja. Horizontal or hanging branches form a conical crown. The needles are soft, sharp, and consist of small scales. During the flowering period, bright red male flowers and female ones – small, green, appear at the ends of the shoots. The cones are round, resinous. The most popular varieties of this type:

• Blue surprise – the name corresponds to the color of the deep blue needles. The narrow columnar crown consists of vertical branches. It grows by 10-20 cm per year. The bark of the trunk is saturated, reddish-brown.
• Columnaris is a coniferous tree with a narrow columnar crown, reaching a height of 4 m. It is formed by vertical branches pressed to the trunk with flat bluish needles. The plant is used to create a hedge.
• Elwoodi is a low cypress tree that grows up to 10 meters in 1,5 years. The crown is in the form of a cone, pointed towards the apex. Very beautiful in home compositions. Differs in moderate frost resistance.

Cypress Dull

Dull-leaved cypress is a tree-like shape reaching 25 m in height. For home breeding, its height is no more than 5 meters. In accordance with its name, it has bright green needles rounded at the ends. Round small cones contain 8 to 12 scales. Main varieties:

• Pygmy is a Japanese variety characterized by very slow growth. For 10 years, its representatives grow up to only 75 cm. Loves the sun, sheds branches in the shade, breaking the shape of the crown. The shrub is hardy, with proper care, competent root protection, it can tolerate frost down to minus 30 ° С
• Kaigara is a dwarf cypress, a very picturesque variety. It has a luxurious crown in the form of a wide cone, dense bright greenery, hiding branches. Possesses a high degree of decorativeness, is widely used in landscape design.
• Dracht cypress is a beautiful shrub with emerald needles, fluffy, spherical crown. Slowly growing, adding no more than 10 cm per year. The shape of the long shoots resembles a thin wire, which is reflected in the name (dracht – wire). The plant achieves the greatest decorative effect if it receives a lot of light and grows in moist soil. Differs in high frost resistance.

Cypress Tuevidny

Shrub-shaped cypress, up to 3,5 meters high, although in the wild it can reach 35 meters. Thin branches form a conical crown. The smooth reddish bark of a young plant cracks over time, and the blue-green needles acquire a brownish tint. The needles give off a pleasant cedar aroma. Cones of an ideal round shape open at the end of autumn and release winged seeds.

• Erikoides is a low shrub up to 2,5 m. Dense horizontal branches form a columnar crown with an openwork pattern. With age, the blue color of the needles is replaced by gray-green, and then reddish. The plant looks spectacular when decorating park alleys.
• Red Star is a low-growing variety (1,5 m). It has a pyramidal crown and dense needle-like needles. In the first years of the plant’s life, it is bluish-green, and, with the onset of cold weather, its color turns purple. The plant is long-lived, the average lifespan is 300 years.

Distribution

The wild cypress has a wide natural range that includes North America, South and East Asia, and Japan. This explains the many of its forms, which have a variety of natural and climatic preferences and breed properties.

Cypress grows well in flat terrain, but it can also be found in rugged terrain, including hills and slopes.

After the cultivation of the plant, its decorative species are found in a wide variety of regions, since it is unpretentious and does not require complex maintenance. The only condition for good survival and active growth is a sufficient amount of moisture and light. In regions with frosty winters, only some cypress species that have a sufficient level of frost resistance are suitable for breeding.

Landing

Breeding a cypress tree in a garden plot, seedlings can be grown independently or purchased in a specialized nursery. This unpretentious plant quickly takes root and adapts to new conditions of existence. Transfer to open, unprotected ground is recommended in April (especially for areas with a harsh climate), but it is also possible in early autumn (from late August to October). Before planting a crop, the timing should be calculated so that the young plant has time to take root and strengthen the root system before the onset of frost.

Selecting a landing site

When choosing a place for planting, it should be remembered that the cypress is a photophilous and moisture-loving culture. A sunny area is looked after for him, since in the shade the color of the crown will lose its intensity. This is especially important for varieties with yellow-green and amber needles. At the same time, the planting site must be protected from drafts, as winter winds can cause the plant to freeze.

For planting, you should choose a flat area or a hill, but not a lowland, where cold air stagnates for a long time after winter.

Choosing the soil

It should be borne in mind that cypress grows well only on neutral or slightly acidic soils. In addition, most varieties are moisture-loving, so the soil should be moderately moist, but not waterlogged. To prevent this, a drainage system must be foreseen in advance.

The soil for planting a cypress should be light, fertile, neutral with a slope in slightly acidic. The optimal soil composition for this culture is as follows: forest turf with the addition of peat and sand. For moisture-loving varieties, a small amount of clay is added to the soil, which retains moisture. It is necessary to ensure that the soil does not contain admixtures of limestone, which hinders the growth and normal development of the plant.

Landing pit preparation

Having chosen a place, they start planting a plant. The process begins with the preparation of the landing hole. It should be prepared in the fall, so that by the time the seedling is planted, the soil has time to settle and become more fertile. A recess with a diameter of 0,6 and a depth of 0,9 meters is made. A drainage of sand and small pebbles is laid at the bottom, after which, two-thirds of it is covered with a nutritious soil mixture. The root system of the cypress grows in breadth, so the plants are planted at a distance of at least a meter from each other.

Landing

Before planting a plant, its roots are dipped for several hours in a growth stimulant solution for the fastest rooting. Then, the root ball is placed in the hole so that the root collar remains a few centimeters above the ground level. The empty space is filled with the prepared soil mixture, carefully tamping the earth. Watering is carried out and, after a while, after the soil subsides, the soil is again poured and watered. Thoroughly loosen the trunk circle, and then mulch with sawdust or pine bark.

How to transplant a cypress tree into open ground from a pot

The transplant begins with pulling the plant out of the pot, along with an earthen lump braided by roots. Large particles of old soil are removed. Then the earthen clod is dipped in a solution for the development of roots (1 pack per ½ bucket of water).

Important! In the process of transplanting, they try not to expose the root system.

Water is poured into the prepared pit. The tree is placed in the center of the pit and covered with soil mixed with nitroammophos (300 g per pit). After the substrate settles, you should check that the place where the root system goes into the trunk is 10–20 cm below ground level. Then the planting is watered and covered with soil. At the end, the soil is mulched and the tree is tied to a support.

Care

Caring for a cypress tree is easy. He needs regular watering, loosening, feeding, pruning, preparation for winter.

Watering and loosening

The moisture-loving cypress is watered at least once a week. The soil should be moderately moist. When watering, the plant should receive about a bucket of water. In addition, the crown should be regularly sprinkled (sprayed) during that period of the day when there is no bright sun. After watering, the near-trunk soil is loosened to a depth of 20 cm.

Preparing the plant for the cold weather, they also produce abundant watering so that the plant does not experience a moisture deficit in the winter months.

Crown formation

The plant does not need obligatory decorative pruning. Its crown (especially in spherical varieties) keeps its shape well itself. In the spring, sanitary pruning is carried out to remove sick, broken and frost-touched branches, while forming a crown. In this case, no more than a third of the green mass is removed.

In the fall, preparing the plant for winter, formative pruning is again carried out. At this time, a third of the growth of this year is cut off, while maintaining the natural shape of the crown.

Feeding

The planted cypress tree is first fed with mineral fertilizer after 2 months. In the future, feeding is carried out once every two weeks until the beginning of August. Then they take a break and fertilize the plant for the last time before preparing for winter – at the end of October. For young specimens, the concentration of the agent is made 2 times weaker than for adults.

For the cypress, they take a complex nitrogen-containing fertilizer for conifers like Fertik. The required amount of the product is scattered over the surface of the trunk circle, drip and water it abundantly. In the fall, the fertilizer should have a potassium-phosphorus composition. It will increase the plant’s resistance to winter frosts.

Transfer

The cypress should be transplanted in the spring. It is necessary to use the technology of planting in open ground. When digging up a plant, care must be taken to ensure that its voluminous root system is not damaged.

Preparation for winter

In regions where winter frosts are frequent, home care should include pre-winter preparation. In late autumn, it is covered with spruce branches or burlap, after sprinkling the root system with a thick layer of pine bark or sawdust. Such a shelter not only protects from the cold wind, but also provides reliable protection from the bright sun, which can lead to severe burns. In snowy regions, they make protection by pouring a roller of snow around the plants. It is recommended to tie the branches for the winter, pressing them against the trunk so that they do not break off under the weight of the snow.

Planting a cypress: site selection and soil preparation

Cypress does not tolerate direct sunlight, and in the shade it stretches strongly, therefore, areas in partial shade are ideal for its growth. It does not tolerate waterlogging, but needs frequent watering, so it is better to choose soils with a good ability to drain excess moisture. Otherwise, each species has its own specific requirements for growing and care conditions.

When preparing a pit for planting, it is advisable to use a substrate from soil and coniferous humus. Alternatively, a mixture of peat, sand, turf and rotted leaf litter is suitable. Cypresses react painfully to transplanting to a new place, therefore, the seedlings are transferred along with an earthen lump. After planting, the young stem is tied to a pre-hammered peg.

Evergreen cypress – Supressus sempervirens

Reproduction

Amateur gardeners often buy cypress seedlings in specialized stores. It is propagated mainly by breeders and people who grow crops for sale. There are three breeding options: seeds, cuttings and layering.

Seeds

Breeding from seeds is used mainly in breeding work (for the cultivation of wild species). At home, it is possible to propagate cypress by seeds, but valuable varietal characteristics may be lost.

The first stage of seed propagation is the process of collecting the seed and drying it properly. To obtain friendly shoots, seeds are stratified (imitation of weather conditions). For this, the seeds are sown in a moist soil substrate, after which the containers are taken out into the street and immersed in the snow for the winter.

In the spring they are brought into the warmth, wait for germination, after which they provide abundant watering and, if necessary, dive. When the seedlings get stronger, they are taken out to fresh air for hardening. In April, with the onset of warmth, they land in open ground.

Cutting

Cutting is the most reliable method and is often used in home breeding. Pre-harvesting of cuttings is carried out, cutting them from shoots with a length of 10 to 15 cm (for columnar and spherical varieties, vertically growing stems are taken on the trunk, for creeping ones – side ones). The lower part is freed from the needles and planted in a rooting container, after dipping it into a growth stimulator solution. Cover with plastic wrap on top, making it look like a greenhouse. High humidity promotes rapid rooting of cuttings.

After about 3 months, when small roots appear, remove the polyethylene and wait for the development of the roots. In 2 months they will reach a sufficient size, and it will be possible to plant them in open ground. This must be done in the warm season, after hardening the plant.

Layering

Reproduction by layering is possible if the cypress has creeping shoots. To do this, in the spring, choose the lower powerful stem. A shallow incision is made on it, into which a small pebble is inserted, preventing its overgrowth. The selected shoot is laid on the ground, fixed and the place of the incision is covered with earth. Water it actively along with the parent plant. These actions contribute to the development of a young root system at the incision site. Then the shoot is cut from the tree, the young root is carefully dug up and transplanted to a permanent place until the beginning of the growing season.

Difficulties and problems of growing

Very often there are situations when the cypress of Lawson Elwoodi dries up or withers. What to do? The plant can still be saved, albeit extremely problematic. This usually happens when grown at home.

The main reasons are dry air in the room, too high temperatures. Unfortunately, it is not always possible and not for everyone to grow a beautiful and healthy cypress tree in indoor conditions. Therefore, in such situations, it is necessary to increase the humidity of the air, to provide the plant with regular spraying and watering. At home, the plant winters well at fairly low (about 10-15 degrees) temperatures. The cypress cannot stand the heat.

If Lawson’s cypress turned yellow after winter, then probably the culture received a spring burn, this is very common.

Biostimulants, for example, “Epin”, will also help.

Root system decay is also likely, so you may have to get the plant out of the soil and examine the root system for rot.

A gardener under the nickname Mountelf on one of the forums claims that the possibility of burning out in the spring sun of the cypress Lawson Elwoodi is more likely than its freezing in winter.

Diseases and pests

The valuable breed quality of cypress is high immunity. It is not susceptible to hereditary diseases, but, if the conditions of care are violated, various fungal infections and attacks of insect pests are possible.

The most common diseases are:

• Fusarium or tracheomycosis. It is characterized by decay of the roots and the gradual spread of rot throughout the plant. If the needles turn yellow and the bark acquires a brown hue, then the likelihood of fusarium disease is high. To prevent infection, the soil is regularly loosened. This helps prevent congestion. Disinfect planting material and tools, treat shoots with Fundazol.
• Brown Schütte infects the plant in conditions of high air humidity, lack of sunlight. The disease manifests itself in early spring. After the snow melts on the branches, a coating of cobwebs and darkening of the needles become noticeable. The plant is treated with sulfuric lime preparations. Bordeaux fluid is most effective, as well as Abiga Peak.
• Root rot affects the plant in the absence of a drainage system, when liquid stagnates near the roots. In this case, the plant is dug up and diseased roots are cut off. The remaining roots and base are treated with a fungicide. The transplant is carried out by placing drainage on the bottom of the planting pit.
• Late blight causes wilting of shoots. The needles become brown, brittle, dry. The disease is transmitted to the roots, which also turn brown. The spread of the disease in the area can be prevented only by removing the plant. Prevention should be carried out, which consists in treating the soil with Ridomil Gold. Well-organized drainage helps.

Low immunity can lead to attacks by garden pests. For a cypress, the most dangerous are:

• A spider mite is detected by a cobweb on the wrong side of the needles. It is characterized by yellow blotches on the needles, which dries up and crumbles. Prolonged drought provokes the disease. Fighting the pest, they remove the affected branches. For mild symptoms, a solution of laundry soap or mineral oil is used. In more serious cases – Akarin, Fitoverm, Aktellik.
• Aphids – microscopic black flies that live on needles, cause the shoots to dry out and, in the future, the entire plant. At the beginning of the lesion, therapy is carried out by treating the affected areas with soapy water. In the future, Fitoverm, Decis, Commander are used.
• Thuy bark beetle infects young branches, eating away their core. Noticing the moves made in the shoots and trunk, you can make sure that the bush is sick. The bark beetle causes the death of the plant. To combat, spray with karbofos or use a systemic insecticide. A heavily affected plant should be removed to prevent the spread of the disease.

To organize reliable protection of the plant from diseases, you should reliably cover it for the winter from frost and bright sun, control the normal soil moisture, feed it correctly, and carry out competent prevention of diseases and pests.

Planting and caring for a cypress

• Landing: in April.
• Bloom: the plant is grown as an ornamental deciduous plant.
• Lighting: bright diffused light for plants with yellow-green needles and partial shade for species and varieties with green needles.
• The soil: nutritious, not limed and well-drained loam.
• Watering: regular, water consumption – 10 liters per plant, but in extreme heat, humidification should be more frequent and more abundant.
• Air humidity: in the hot season, seedlings need daily spraying, and adult plants are sprayed at least once a week.
• Trimming: in spring and autumn.
• Feeding: complex mineral fertilizer twice a month until mid-summer. Young seedlings are fed for the first time two months after planting with a solution of mineral fertilizer in a half dosage.
• Reproduction: seeds, cuttings and layering.
• Pests: scale insects and spider mites.
• Diseases: root rot.

Read more about growing cypress below.

Meaning and application

The cypress is an ornamental crop. It is used in most cases to decorate a house or a personal plot.

Ease of care and unpretentiousness allows you to plant it in city parks and squares. The plant looks especially impressive in late autumn. At a time when other trees and bushes have already dropped their foliage, the cypress with its bright green, openwork needles pleases the eye, improves mood.

Use in landscape design

A huge number of species forms, differing in color of needles, height, shape and size of the crown, makes the cypress irreplaceable for use in landscape design. With its help, you can create beautiful compositions, organically combining with other ornamental plants.

Low-growing varieties look advantageous with lush bushes – spirea, decorative barberry, elderberry, on alpine hills and in rockeries. Dwarf varieties are chosen to create a composition with trees. A weeping cypress tree is planted over a body of water, creating a picturesque landscape.

The tall hybrid looks good alone, decorating the space next to the house. Combining it with bright perennial flowers in flower beds, they skillfully play in contrast.

The cypress grows well indoors. Planted in a tub or large pot, it is an indispensable decoration for a home flower garden or winter garden.

Lawson’s cypress in landscape design

Due to its beautiful appearance and plastic crown shape, Lawson’s cypress is often used in landscape design. Usually it is formed in the form of geometric shapes:

They can be used both in single plantings and in groups, for example, to decorate an alley with a number of tree columns. Often, Lawson’s cypress is used to form hedges. Dwarf varieties are great for decorating rock gardens. The pleasant green, yellow, blue and gray colors of the Lawson cypress needles are an excellent backdrop for flowering plants and bushes.