Sometimes simple beauty is the best and most enduring. Take a tranquil moment to contemplate the profound charms of the Tempelhof Hinoki Cypress – you will be impressed. From its rounded form, maturing into a more upright dome, to the wonderful, rounded, shell-like cups of its foliage, this is a plant with Zen beauty. Flushed with yellow in spring, the warm green foliage turns the bronze of a brass temple bell in winter. The more you live with this plant, and watch it mature, the more you will love it, and come to appreciate the true and lasting beauty to be found in simple things. An appealing addition to your foundation planting, grown in the company of other rare conifers, or in a planter where it can be appreciated up close, this is a plant equally at home in an Eastern-inspired garden as it is in an all-American one.

Growing the Tempelhof Hinoki Cypress

Size and Appearance

The Tempelhof Hinoki Cypress is a rare dwarf conifer with a rounded form, maturing into a broad dome. It is slower growing, adding no more than 6 inches of growth a year, and typically less, so this is a plant to enjoy over the long haul. Every year you will be impressed by its calm appearance and sturdy, reliable growth, as it rises 2 to 4 feet within 10 years, ultimately reaching 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide as it turns from a rounded globe into a broad pyramidal dome. The foliage grows to the ground even in ancient specimens, and it takes on a slightly layered appearance, with the outward-spreading branches staying dense and lush. The foliage has a unique rounded growth pattern, making cupped bowls of closely packed green branchlets in overlapping layers that have a shell-like appearance. In spring the new growth is bright lime green to yellow, adding a fresh and vibrant look, before maturing to a rich dark green. In the colder days of winter it hunkers down into bronze and coppery tones, making that yellow spring flush even more dramatic when it comes. Older plants may develop clusters of rounded cones, first green and then brown, adding interest.

Using the Tempelhof Hinoki Cypress in Your Garden

Evergreens of this quality deserve a prominent spot in your garden, so plant it in the front of other evergreens, or as a specimen in a mixed shrub bed. A great thing to do, if you love the variety and forms of these dwarf conifers, is to create a special bed for them. Plant a variety of them well apart to allow for future growth, mulch the soil with gravel, and place some large boulders among the plants. As they grow these beds become striking features, contrasting form and color in an ever-changing interplay. With its profound calm, the Tempelhof Hinoki Cypress is especially valuable for a Japanese or Asian-style garden, planted in a corner, beside a lantern, or at an entrance. It is also very attractive in a planter, and it is equally effective in a modern container or a classical exotic pot.

Hardiness

The Tempelhof Hinoki Cypress grows well from zone 4 to zone 8, across a large part of the country. In zone 4 provide some protection for the first couple of winters.

Sun Exposure and Soil Conditions

Full sun is best for the Tempelhof Hinoki Cypress, but it will be happy with a couple of hours of shade each day. Any well-drained soil is suitable, and it will grow best in richer soils that are moist but not wet. This is easily achieved if you add organic material before planting, and mulch in spring.

Maintenance and Pruning

If you are tempted to trim your Tempelhof Hinoki Cypress, avoid that temptation. The subtle but rich beauty of the cupped foliage is easily destroyed with trimming, so let it mature naturally. This plant is normally pest and disease free, so once established it is maintenance free. Water newly planted specimens regularly for the first year or two, and then during dry spells and hot weather.

History and Origin of the Tempelhof Hinoki Cypress

The Hinoki cypress, Chamaecyparis obtusa, grows naturally across Japan, where it is an important forest tree, growing as much as 100 feet tall. It is used as a source of high quality lumber, and its wood is the material of choice for temples and other important structures. It plays an important part in Japanese traditional life, and many special forms have been collected over the centuries by the skilled gardeners of that country. In some ways it fills the same place as white cedar does for gardeners in our eastern states, being frequently used for hedges and specimens, but it has more beauty and refinement than white cedar. The name ‘Hinoki’ means ‘fire’, in reference to the reddish-bronze colors of the foliage in winter.

Unique Japanese varieties began to find their way to the West in the 19th century, as Japan opened to trade, and among them was the variety we today call ‘Nana Gracilis’, which arrived in England in 1867. Distributed across Europe it transformed into several other forms, perhaps including the one called ‘Templehof’. This plant was found some time before 1964 at the Tempelhof Nursery of L. Konijn & Company in the plant-growing area of Boskoop, The Netherlands. It was noted for its vigor, golden spring coloring and striking foliage structure, and probably arose as a unique branch on an established plant, but we don’t know that for certain.

Buying the Tempelhof Hinoki Cypress at the Tree Center

We love being able to offer these rare and special evergreens to our most discerning customers. Collectors watch our site closely for new arrivals, so rare beauties like this are quickly picked out and shipped out. They don’t stay on our farm for long, so order now, and settle back to grow something special.