Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Gracilis Compacta'

The plant we selected as the secondary focal point for the Collins Road corners is a hinoki falsecypress, designated by Phipps Conservatory as a top sustanable plant.  We chose the 'Gracilis Compacta' cultivar, which is semi-dwarf, so should reach 8-10 feet in height, and has excellent fan-like leaves.  The plant is relatively disease free and should be tolerant of the sunny exposure along Graham.  It has a pyramidal, slightly irregular growth habit, which makes it a good choice as a specimen plant.  The current plantings on the corner are mainly sheared yews (evergreen) and sheared euonymus (deciduous), and we want to make sure that our replacements represent both evergreens (the falsecypress, some boxwoods I'll address in another blog entry, and some additional plants to come, as well as deciduous shrubs/trees (the dogwood I described below).  We can't afford to replace everything at once, so we have having our landscaper, Tom Fossick, remove most of the sheared shrubs this month, and install the new items we purchased.  We are preserving all of the non-sheared shrubs and perennials at the corners (sand cherries, dwarf Alberta spruce, magnolias, Russian sage, daffodils), and, for the present, the yew hedges directly behind the stone seating.  We plan to add a few more evergreens in the fall, as well as some native oakleaf hydrangeas.  I'll keep you posted here.  Please give us your feedback.

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