Chamaecyparis

A Japanese evergreen conifer, also called Japanese cypress, that grows into a tall pyramid of flattened, drooping sprays of dark green scale leaves with white X- or Y-shaped marks underneath, aromatic when crushed, over reddish-brown bark that peels on old trees. The full-size species is rarely planted in North American gardens; what nurseries sell is mostly its compact and dwarf cultivars, such as Nana Gracilis, which keep the same foliage at a much smaller size. It wants moist, fertile, well-drained soil, sun and shelter from wind.

A Japanese evergreen conifer, also called Japanese falsecypress, with fine, fern-like sprays of sharp-pointed scale leaves marked white beneath, tiny pea-sized cones and reddish-brown bark that peels in strips. A large pyramidal tree in the wild, it usually stays far smaller in gardens, and the species itself is rarely sold: nurseries offer its many cultivars instead, from the drooping, cord-like Filifera forms to the feathery Plumosa and soft, mossy Squarrosa forms such as Boulevard. It grows in sun or part shade and copes with drier soil than hinoki cypress once established.