Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress

The bark is the feature most gardeners miss on young plants. Each year, the gray outer bark blisters and peels away in thin strips. Underneath is a smooth, red-brown inner bark, and that smoothness is what the species name glabra describes. Look closely at the foliage and you will also see tiny white dots. These are resin glands, small pockets that hold the fragrant oils you smell when you crush a twig. Growth is quick in the early years, often two to three feet of height per season on a well-sited plant. The crown starts dense and conical. With age, it opens up, the lower limbs thicken, and the trunk becomes a real presence in the planting.

Wild smooth Arizona cypress grows on rocky and gravelly canyon slopes in central Arizona, mostly between about 3,500 and 8,000 feet. Those sites are sunny, windy, and sharply drained. That background explains most of how the tree behaves in a garden. It handles reflected heat, alkaline soils, and long dry stretches once its roots are established. What it does not handle is standing water. In heavy clay that stays wet, the roots stay shallow, and the tree becomes easy to blow over. Planted where drainage is good, it works well as a windbreak, a privacy screen, or a single specimen with room to spread.

Cypresses do not flower. They are monoecious, meaning one tree carries both pollen cones and seed cones. The pollen cones are small and dust-colored, and they release wind-borne pollen in late winter. Seed cones are round, woody, and about an inch across. They often stay closed on the branch for years, opening only after the branch that holds them dies. This habit helps the species reseed after fire. ‘Carolina Sapphire’ itself was selected in 1968 by Clemson University foresters from trees raised at a South Carolina Christmas tree farm, and it was registered in 1987. Because seedlings do not inherit the color reliably, the plant is grown from cuttings. A few cautions are worth knowing: the branches are somewhat brittle in ice and high wind, the species is prone to stem canker in humid regions, and the winter pollen can trouble people with tree pollen allergies.