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Cupressus guadalupensis 'Greenlee's Blue Rocket' (Greenlee's Blue Rocket) - This is an evergreen upright and narrow growing tree with silvery-gray foliage. The oldest planted specimen known was growing in John Greenlee's garden in Pomona, California and it exhibited a much narrower growth habit than is typical of the species. Although ultimate height and width are still unknown, it will probably grow to at least 45 feet tall by 6-8 feet wide.
Plant in full sun and given occasional to infrequent irrigation. This tree is drought tolerant with a cold hardiness of 15 degrees F. This is a wonderful selection of a western native cypress that looks like a rocket ship sprouted in the garden.
Cupressus guadalupensis's native habitat is on Guadalupe Island 130 miles west of southern Baja California, where it grows at elevations about 2,500 feet. In this habitat it is known to reach nearly 60 feet tall with a broad rounded head. It is closely related to the Tecate Cypress, Cupressus guadalupensis var. forbesii, which has a range on the mainland from Mexico into southern California. Recent genetic research has shown that the Western Hemisphere cypresses are a well-supported clade that are quite separate from the Eastern Hemisphere species and a new genus, Hesperocyparis, has been erected for the New World cypresses while the Old World plants retain the name Cupressus. We are currently leaving this plant listed as Cupressus until this change becomes widely accepted.
We were given this plant by John Greenlee in the mid 1990s as a fastigiate form of Cupressus guadalupensis that he had selected from a seed lot that was grown by and from seed collected by David Amme. John had planted the original tree in his Pomona garden and in 2001 and we took our first cuttings of it. By 2002 we were ready to sell our first crop and since it lacked a cultivar name we came up with a name to describe this plants unique erect form with its blue-gray foliage and credit the man we got it from, naming it 'Greenlee's Blue Rocket'. We first listed it in our 2002 catalog under this name and continue to offer it as such. We continue to grow another plant from Guadalupe Island, Senecio palmeri 'Silver and Gold' and we also used to grow the Guadalupe Palm Brahea edulis.
This information about Cupressus guadalupensis 'Greenlee's Blue Rocket' displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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