Cupressus cashmeriana (Kashmir Cypress) - A beautiful evergreen conifer from south Tibet that typically grows in cultivation to 40 to 60 feet tall but ones measured in habitat are among the tallest trees in the world, exceeding 200 feet! It has a narrowly pyramidal shape with upright main branches and long (often several feet) pendulous branchlets bearing blue-green, aromatic foliage.
Plant in full sun and irrigate occasionally. It is hardy to about 15-20° F but can be damaged in high winds, so is best in less windy areas, in mixed plantings or sheltered locations that offer some protection. It may also be damaged in prolonged dry, hot weather.
Cupressus cashmeriana comes from the eastern Himalaya in Bhutan and adjacent areas of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. In A handbook of Coniferae and Ginkgoaceae (Dallimore, William, Albert Bruce Jackson, and S.G. Harrison, New York: St. Martin's Press. 1967) it is noted that the tree is not well known in Britain but the most famous tree in Europe was a tree of "remarkable beauty" on the Isola Madre at Lake Maggiore. The largest tree in the United States was a beautiful 60-foot-tall specimen in the lawn adjacent to the succulent garden at the Huntington Botanic Gardens in San Marino, California but this tree was snapped off at the ground by winds during a storm in January 1997 that had microbursts measured in excess of 120 MPH by the nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
The name of this conifer has been disputed for many years. It has gone under the name Cupressus himalaica var. darjeelingensis and C. torulosa var. cashmeriana. In the March 2000 Conifer Registrar by Piers Trehane (adapted from Aljos Farjon's "World Checklist and Bibliography of Conifers" Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 1998) Cupressus cashmeriana Royle Ex Carriere was listed as the correct name for this species but in a subsequent article by John Silba of the State University of New York for the International Conifer Preservation Society (Silba, J. (2009) made a strong argument that the name Cupressus tortulosa Griffith preceded this name and should be the correct name for this species, but in 2016 In Taxon 65: 1154 the Nomenclatural Committee for Vascular plants published its decision to reject this name change and stood by the name Cupressus cashmeriana. It was under this name that it was awarded the prestigious Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1993. We have grown the tree continuously since the year 2000 after getting cuttings of it from Carol Bornstein.
The information about Cupressus cashmeriana displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include 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 we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant. |