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Pencil cypress

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  • 21-05-2019 9:42pm
    #1
    Live at Three
    Registered Users Posts: 300 ✭✭


    I planted two Thuja 'Smagard' a year and a half ago and unfortunately they're not looking great, one of them is almost certainly dead. Between the non-stop rain of winter and spring and then the drought in summer, they didn't exactly have a good first year of life.

    I want to replace them and I'm looking for something like the Italian cypress or Irish yew. I was advised that the Italian cypress is not great in this climate, and I often see them looking shabby, or missing chunks, which spoils the effect.
    Juniper skyrocket is another one which has a similar look, but I prefer the very thin pencil look.

    Has anyone any experience growing these, or advice on the best choice?


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    #2
    macraignil
    Registered Users Posts: 3,358 ✭✭✭macraignil


    Live at Three wrote: »
    I planted two Thuja 'Smagard' a year and a half ago and unfortunately they're not looking great, one of them is almost certainly dead. Between the non-stop rain of winter and spring and then the drought in summer, they didn't exactly have a good first year of life.

    I want to replace them and I'm looking for something like the Italian cypress or Irish yew. I was advised that the Italian cypress is not great in this climate, and I often see them looking shabby, or missing chunks, which spoils the effect.
    Juniper skyrocket is another one which has a similar look, but I prefer the very thin pencil look.

    Has anyone any experience growing these, or advice on the best choice?


    Got a range of Juniper plants about four and a half years back when I was planting up a new garden. They were all of the ones available from Future forest at the time bar one with white tips to the branches (I think might have been Holger) I did not like the look of. Some of them are more of a sprawling growth habit than others and only two of the ten I got are the more upright growth pattern that you say you are interested in. They were all in small pots and probably not more than 15cm tall and although they have grown a bit even the upright growing type has only got to about a metre in height. They may have started to grow more recently but for the first couple of years it was difficult to see much of a change in their size. They are hardy and still provide colour in winter and are growing on the harshest part of my garden on a steep north facing slope, but if you want to get more impact it might be worth spending the extra money on getting ones that have been grown a bit bigger. You can see them in between a variety of other plants at the start of this video I posted.


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    #3
    Live at Three
    Registered Users Posts: 300 ✭✭Live at Three


    macraignil wrote: »
    Got a range of Juniper plants about four and a half years back when I was planting up a new garden. They were all of the ones available from Future forest at the time bar one with white tips to the branches (I think might have been Holger) I did not like the look of. Some of them are more of a sprawling growth habit than others and only two of the ten I got are the more upright growth pattern that you say you are interested in. They were all in small pots and probably not more than 15cm tall and although they have grown a bit even the upright growing type has only got to about a metre in height. They may have started to grow more recently but for the first couple of years it was difficult to see much of a change in their size. They are hardy and still provide colour in winter and are growing on the harshest part of my garden on a steep north facing slope, but if you want to get more impact it might be worth spending the extra money on getting ones that have been grown a bit bigger. You can see them in between a variety of other plants at the start of this video I posted.

    Thanks a mill for that. I think the juniper might be a bit too broad for what I need. They have to go either side of a driveway so can't spread too much. I know also that there's lots of lovely fastigiate deciduous stuff but I need the year round interest in that spot.

    Your video is cool, the hedge of flowering dogwood is a nice idea.


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