It's OK if it's Soft Serve® (false cypress). This elegant plant has soft, fern-like evergreen foliage that is green on top and flecked with silver-blue on the underside. It's a beautiful specimen plant.
Soft Serve® Chamaecyparis is hardy to USDA Zone 5 and grows 6-10' tall. It will be grow in sun or partial shade, but if you're in a colder climate some protection from winter wind is a good idea.
Welcome
to December!
Can you believe it? There's only one more month left in 2016, and it's a tough one.
The weather turns cold
and the daylight disappears; these short days are hard for anyone who has
evening activities or a dog who wants an evening walk.
So I'll be talking about evergreens this month. After all, December is when evergreens really earn their keep in the landscape. Both modern and ancient cultures bring evergreens inside at this time of the year; a bit of green in the dreary gray of winter is promise that the sun will come back.
Cupressaceae contains some popular genera, including Thuja, Chamaecyparis, and Microbiota. Here is a good slide show illustrating this group of plants. You'll need a break from all of the seasonal television specials; a few minutes of The Star Wars Holiday Special will have your kids begging for a lecture on the wonders of falsecypress.
Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles
