Plant: Tansu - Dwarf Cryptomeria

Plant description

Tansu is a true dwarf Japanese cedar, one of the smallest selections of Cryptomeria japonica in cultivation. It builds a dense, irregularly pyramidal little plant from tight, congested, clumpy branching, with short semi juvenile needles that are light to medium green and longest in the middle of each stem. Growth is roughly 2 to 3 inches a year, so a ten year old plant is only about knee high and a mature one settles near 4 feet. Winter cold brings a bronze cast to the foliage that greens up again in spring. The scale and the sculptural, congested texture suit rock gardens, troughs, conifer beds, foundation pockets and containers, anywhere a full size cryptomeria would be impossible.

Foliage

Evergreen bright or blue green needles about three quarters of an inch long, awl shaped and spirally arranged, giving a foxtail effect; some selections bronze in winter.

Fruit

Female seed cones are round, brown and rosette looking, borne singly or in groups on terminal branches.

Bark & stems

Showy reddish brown bark that exfoliates and peels off in long strips; branches are whorled and horizontally spreading to slightly drooping.

Light

Dappled/Filtered Light

Native range

Central and South Japan and China

Plant details