Fairy Puff Sawara Cypress

Among conifer evergreens, size matters. Very often the original wild trees are forest giants, and unsuitable for the average garden. Over the years nurseries and dedicated gardeners have found more compact varieties, so that today you can grow the same tree in a wide range of sizes and forms. One perennially popular form for evergreens is as a small, rounded bush. Such plants are ideal for beds and rock gardens in smaller spaces, adding year-round color. While many of these plants grow around 3 or even 6 feet tall and wide, some of the most select ones stay a lot smaller – so small they can be held in a pot in your hand. The Sawara cypress is a very tall forest tree from Japan, far too large for most gardens. But over the centuries the Japanese have selected hundreds of forms with different types of foliage, different coloring, and different sizes. At the very small end, as the name suggests, is the Fairy Puff Sawara Cypress. A true miniature, growing just an inch or two a year, this appealing little plant is perfect for small rock gardens, troughs and window boxes, and also for growing in a pot, where you can admire it on a table, and be amazed by its miniature beauty. Using the Fairy Puff Sawara Cypress in Your Garden The Fairy Puff Sawara Cypress is ideal for a small pocket in a rock garden, or in the levels of a retaining wall, but probably too small for all but the smallest garden beds. It is a great choice for planters and window boxes, where it can be mixed with other dwarf plants, making a beautiful miniature garden that is especially appealing to children, and a great way to introduce them to the joys of gardening. It can also be grown alone in a pot, perhaps the best thing to do, where it can be enjoyed on a terrace or patio, a balcony, on a wall, or on a table. Use an attractive terracotta pot – an old flower-pot is ideal, as the moisture moving into the clay keeps a good air-supply into the soil. Growing the Fairy Puff Sawara Cypress Size and Appearance The Fairy Puff Sawara Cypress is a small conifer evergreen which grows as a loose, open push of many fluffy stems. Growing between 1 and 3 inches a year, in 10 years it will be 12 to 18 inches tall and wide, maturing, if left untrimmed, around 3 feet or so. It produces many short stems, staying in bun shape close to the ground. The Sawara cypress has two main types of foliage, adult and juvenile. Adult foliage consists of flat, scale-like leaves that cling the branches smoothly. Juvenile foliage is triangular and sticks out at a sharp angle from the stems. This is the type seen in this plant. The tiny leaves just out, giving a soft, fluffy look to the whole plant. New leaves, at the tips of the stems, form a cluster that varies from pale yellow to almost white, depending on season and sun-exposure. The older leaves, deeper inside the bush, are soft gray-green, forming a great backdrop to the white ones, and giving the whole bush a sparkling look. This variety doesn’t produce any cones. Hardiness The Fairy Puff Sawara Cypress grows readily in zone 5, and all the way through zone 8, where some afternoon shade is advisable during the summer months. It enjoys regions that are not too hot in spring and summer, and may not do so well if you have intense heat and long periods of drought. Plants in pots are less winter-hardy, and can only be left all winter outdoors from warmer parts of zone 6, or better, from zone 7. In colder regions bury the pot somewhere in the ground for the winter. Sun Exposure and Soil Conditions Growing in full sun, or with a little afternoon shade, will be best for your Fairy Puff Sawara Cypress. This will give healthy, dense growth and strong foliage coloring. It is happy in most garden soils, considering one that is slightly acidic, rich in compost, and generally moist, to be ideal, but it isn’t overly ‘fussy’. It isn’t especially drought tolerant, but older plants in the ground will be somewhat resistant once they are more mature. For plants in pots, use a soil blended for outdoor trees and shrubs in pots. If that isn’t available, mix half houseplant soil with half cactus soil, or add 25% garden soil to houseplant soil. Maintenance and Pruning This plant is generally free of pests or diseases, and since it won’t be eaten by deer it is easy to grow. For a tight, bushy plant with good coloring, we recommend annual trimming. Do this in late spring, once the new shoots have matured a little. Trim lightly with very sharp hand-shears. New, shorter and more abundant shoots will soon develop, giving you a great look and keeping this plant neat and small. History and Origin of the Fairy Puff Sawara Cypress The Sawara Cypress, Chamaecyparis pisifera, is sometimes called ‘false cypress’, as the true cypress are all Cupressus species. It grows in Japan, making extensive forests across the mountains, growing as much as 150 feet tall. Over the centuries Japanese gardeners collected many unique forms, divided into 3 groups. Varieties in the Filifera Group have stringy, thread-like, hanging shoots. Those is the Plumosa Group have feathery sprays of slender branches covered in smooth, scale-like leaves. The variety called ‘Fairy Puff’ has flat, triangular leaves that point out at an angle from the stems, giving a fuzzy look. Varieties of this type make up the Squarrosa Group. In 1967 R. S. Corley, a British collector of unique conifers, introduced into Europe a plant he had obtained in Japan. It had thread-like shoots, so it was a Filifera variety. He called it ‘White Pygmy’, and gradually it found its way into American nurseries. One famous conifer nursery is Iseli Nursery, in Oregon. There, a unique branch was spotted one day on a plant of ‘White Pygmy’, with fuzzy, sticking out leaves. That made it a Squarrosa plant, and these new stems were propagated and called ‘Fairy Puff’. Buying the Fairy Puff Sawara Cypress at the Tree Center The Fairy Puff Sawara Cypress is something really special, and rarely available outside specialists catalogs. We have found some beautifully grown plants, just ready to be adopted by you. This unique plant is full of appeal, and will be a great addition to your garden. We just have a few, so don’t hesitate to place your order – they won’t be on our farm for much longer, that’s for sure.