Tree · Cupressaceae
Hinoki Cypress
Chamaecyparis obtusa
Give it acidic soil, steady moisture, and shelter from harsh wind, and this slow evergreen holds its shape for a lifetime.
Full sun
Every 5–10 days
USDA 4–8
50–75 ft · 15.2–22.9 m
Overview
The Hinoki cypress is a slow, stately evergreen from the mountain forests of Japan, where wild trees climb to great age and size. It stands among the false cypresses, the genus Chamaecyparis, marked off from the true cypresses by its scale-like foliage, tiny overlapping green scales pressed flat into fanning, frond-like sprays. Draw a hand across those sprays and they give up a soft, resinous scent, the same character that has kept the timber prized for centuries.
The wild giant is a rare sight in gardens next to its many cultivars. Breeders have teased dwarfs, golden forms, and twisted, congested shapes from the species, so the foliage may pile into tight little shells on a knee-high bonsai or sweep up a slender 20-foot column. Whatever the shape, it holds its scaly green through every season as a year-round backbone, hardy across USDA zones 4 to 8.
This is a patient gardener's tree, dense and deep green up close. It grows slowly and asks little once settled, holding to one firm rule written into its wood: it will not regrow from bare wood, so what you cut away stays gone. Set it in acidic, well-drained soil with sun and shelter, and it repays the wait with decades of quiet, tightly clothed structure.
Care
The short version: full sun to part shade in moist, acidic, well-drained soil, kept evenly watered but never waterlogged, with light pruning only and shelter from drying winter wind.
Light
The Hinoki cypress does best in full sun, which packs the scaly sprays tight and dense and pulls the strongest yellow into the golden cultivars. It will take partial shade, but in too little light the foliage grows open and thin, and the lower branches lose their green first.
Water
Keep the soil evenly moist but never waterlogged, watering roughly every 5 to 10 days and more often through a dry spell. Steady moisture matters most while the tree is establishing. Soggy ground is the one thing it won't forgive.
Soil
Plant it in fertile, acidic, well-drained loam with a pH between 5.0 and 6.5. Good drainage is essential, because the roots rot in standing water, so lighten heavy clay with organic matter or set the tree on a raised spot.
Temperature
The tree is tough across a wide range, hardy from about -29°F to 100°F (-34°C to 38°C) and comfortable through USDA zones 4 to 8. It handles real cold well, though young plants exposed to harsh winter wind can scorch the foliage brown.
Humidity
Ordinary outdoor humidity suits it fine, so there's no target to hit. What matters more is air movement and shelter from drying wind, which in winter can pull moisture from the flat green sprays faster than frozen roots can replace it.
Feeding
Feed once in spring with a balanced, slow-release fertilizer made for acid-loving evergreens. One seasonal feeding is plenty for a tree that grows this slowly, and a formula that keeps the soil acidic holds the scaly foliage a deep, even green.
Pruning
This is a tree that wants little to no pruning beyond clearing out dead or damaged branches. The critical rule is never to cut back into bare old wood, which will not resprout, so every cut has to stay within the living, green foliage.
Repotting
Container and bonsai specimens want fresh soil and root work every 2 to 3 years. Watch for roots circling the pot, creeping out the drainage holes, water running straight through, or growth slowing to a crawl, which all say it's time to repot.
Size & spacing
The full species is a forest giant, reaching 50 to 75 feet (15 to 23 m) tall with a spread of 15 to 25 feet (4.6 to 7.6 m), so give a landscape specimen real room. Dwarf cultivars stay a fraction of that, their foliage shrunk to tight little fans, which is why they suit smaller gardens, containers, and bonsai.
When to plant
A Hinoki cypress goes into the ground in spring or early fall, when the soil is workable and the weather is mild enough for the roots to settle before heat or hard frost. Both windows give this slow-rooting tree time to establish, and since it is an evergreen grown for its dense, scaly form, there is no harvest to wait on.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: spring or early fall
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 4–8
Temperature: down to -34°C
Troubleshooting
Most Hinoki cypress trouble shows first in the foliage: sprays that brown, bronze, or bleach when the soil stays too wet, the winter wind dries them out, or a cut runs into wood that cannot grow back. Read those early color changes and you can step in before a branch is lost for good. Match what you see below, then act while it still helps.
Foliage browning and slumping as the whole tree fails
When the green fans dull and slump across a whole tree standing in soggy ground, the cause is usually root rot, often the Phytophthora form that thrives in wet soil. Pull back the earth and the roots tell the story: sound ones are firm and pale, rotted ones dark, soft, and slick to the touch. Dry out the drainage, ease off the water, and lift any survivor onto a raised, well-drained spot, since a Hinoki cypress left in standing water rarely comes back.
Fix:
- Improve drainage and stop overwatering
- Remove and destroy severely affected plants
- Replant in a raised or well-drained site with amended soil
Sprays gone bronze and speckled under fine webbing
Foliage that loses its deep green and turns a dusty, speckled bronze through hot, dry weather usually carries spider mites, their fine webbing threading the sprays. Tap a branch over white paper and the specks scatter and crawl. Blast the foliage with a hard jet of water to strip them off, follow with horticultural oil or insecticidal soap, and keep the cypress well watered so the color fills back in.
Fix:
- Spray plants forcefully with water to dislodge mites
- Apply horticultural oil or insecticidal soap
- Encourage natural predators by avoiding broad-spectrum insecticides
Spindle-shaped silk bags dangling among thinned sprays
The spindle-shaped cases of silk, shingled over with snipped bits of green foliage and swinging from the twigs, are bagworms, each one wrapped around a feeding larva. Pick the cases off by hand through fall and winter, when they hang still and dark against the branch. Catch the young larvae feeding in late spring and Bacillus thuringiensis clears them before the sprays thin to bare twig.
Fix:
- Handpick and destroy bags in fall or winter
- Apply Bacillus thuringiensis or an approved insecticide while larvae are young in late spring to early summer
Scorched, bleached foliage surfacing at winter's end
Foliage that bleaches to a brittle brown in late winter, worst on the side that faced the wind, shows winter burn, where sun and wind drew moisture from the sprays while the roots sat locked in frozen ground. Leave the pruners in the shed, since the buds packed inside the brown foliage may still be green and living. Wait for fresh growth to draw the line between dead and alive, cut only what stays brown, and soak the tree deeply each fall before the ground freezes.
Fix:
- Wait for new growth before pruning so you can see the true extent of damage
- Prune out branches that remain dead
- Water well during dry fall periods before the ground freezes
Bare brown branches stripped of any green for good
Inner or lower branches reduced to hard brown wood, stripped of green and refusing to leaf out, have been carried past recovery, usually by a cut or deep shade reaching into old leafless wood. A Hinoki cypress will not break fresh foliage from that bare wood the way a yew does. Keep every cut inside the living, green fans and let light down onto the lower limbs, and each branch you mean to keep stays sheathed in foliage.
Fix:
- Avoid cutting branches back beyond living foliage
- Maintain foliage on all branches you want to keep productive
Toxicity
Good news for households with animals: the Hinoki cypress is not toxic and isn't listed among the plants that poison cats or dogs. A pet that chews one of the stiff, resinous sprays might get a brief upset stomach from the fibrous, aromatic foliage, and nothing worse. You can plant it near pets, livestock, and children without concern.
Safe for
People · Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Cats None
A cat that mouths the flat green sprays is in no real danger, since the plant holds no known toxin. A bite of the stiff, resinous needles might bring a little drooling or a brief upset stomach, and it settles on its own.
Dogs None
Dogs are safe around a Hinoki cypress. Chewing a sprig of the fibrous, aromatic foliage, dense and scale-covered, brings at most a mild, short-lived stomach upset.
Horses Safe
The tree is not toxic to horses and has never been tied to poisoning them. As with any tree they wouldn't normally graze, a horse that tears off a large mouthful of the tough green foliage might get a passing bellyache.
Rabbits Safe
Rabbits run no poisoning risk from this cypress. The stiff, resinous sprays are no natural food for them, so most take a single taste of the scaly foliage and turn away.
Livestock Safe
Cattle, goats, and sheep can share a paddock with a Hinoki cypress safely, since it carries no toxin that reaches them. Grazing animals pass over the bitter, resin-scented evergreen growth anyway.
Birds Safe
Birds are safe around the tree, and the dense, fanning foliage of conifers like this often gives them shelter and a place to nest. Nothing in the sprays would harm them.
People Safe
The plant poses no poisoning danger to people, and no part of it is eaten. The scale-clad foliage is safe to handle, though the aromatic oils it gives off may bother very sensitive skin.
As with any plant, nibbling foliage may cause mild stomach upset in pets even though the plant is not considered toxic.
Varieties
Most gardens grow a named cultivar rather than the full-size species, and the choices run from tiny bonsai dwarfs with shell-tight foliage to gold-tinged columns. These are the ones worth knowing by name.
Nana Gracilis
A slow-growing dwarf whose dense, dark green foliage curls into tight, shell-like sprays, a look that suits it to rock gardens and bonsai.
Crippsii
A golden form whose pendant sprays burn their brightest yellow when it stands in full sun.
Gracilis
A compact, slender pyramid clothed in dark green foliage that reaches about 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 m).
Fernspray Gold
It carries arching, fern-like sprays of golden-yellow foliage on a loose, layered frame.
Kosteri
A dwarf, spreading cultivar whose bright green foliage lays itself out in flat, horizontal fans.
Tetragona Aurea
An irregular dwarf whose congested, four-sided golden foliage gives it a knotty, unusual texture.
How to propagate
Hinoki cypress is increased a few different ways, though only cuttings and grafts will hand you a faithful copy of a named cultivar. Seed works for the species but throws variable seedlings.
Stem cuttingsModerate
Late summer to fall · Several weeks to a few months to root
Cuttings are the usual way to copy a named cultivar true, since an established tree resents being moved. Semi-hardwood cuttings taken from late summer into fall and set under mist strike roots over several weeks to a few months.
GraftingDemanding
Late winter · Weeks to months
Nurseries graft the choicer cultivars onto seedling rootstock in late winter, and the union knits over the weeks to months that follow. The work is exacting, so it falls to growers with practice.
SeedModerate
Spring · Weeks to germinate
Seed sown in spring raises the straight species, the sprouts pushing up over a few weeks. Those seedlings will not match a named cultivar, since they do not come true.
Myths
The Hinoki cypress is a true cypress.
It belongs to the genus Chamaecyparis, the false cypresses, set apart from the true cypress genus Cupressus even though both share the Cupressaceae family. Its other common name, Hinoki false cypress, says as much. The plant is a false cypress, not a true one.
An overgrown Hinoki cypress can be hard-pruned into the bare wood to rejuvenate it.
Unlike a yew, this false cypress raises no fresh green from old leafless wood. A branch cut back to bare brown wood simply dies. Keep every cut inside the living, green foliage.