This gloriously gleaming bit of garden bling brightens any landscape all year round. It's Blue Ice Arizona cypress (Cupressus arizonica 'Blue Ice'), an easy to love, undemanding conifer that simply glows, especially when placed against a dark backdrop. Though I'm a card carrying ABG (anything but green) gardener besotted with colorful foliage, I do, sadly, have a paucity of the silver spectrum represented in my foliar follies. Silver and burgundy leafy combos satisfy, but I'm really smitten with chartreuse, and, to my eyes, silver and charteuse should not even be in the same zip code together. So I have to place my silvers with care. And restraint. This was one of the few plants that really thrived during our baking, rain-free summer and though it's often rated hardy to just USDA Hardiness Zone 7, I've been growing it here in 6 for several years.
2 comments:
I wouldn't have guessed that Arizona cypress would grow so far north. I have two in my garden, and the one in the hottest, driest, sunniest spot is by far the happiest. 'Blue Ice' is my favorite cultivar.
Perhaps a really cold winter hereabouts wold be the death of this thing, but we haven't had one with sgnificantly below-zero temps for some time. By the time we do, I'm hoping this will be big enough to withstand it. It is in a protected spot. As for hot dry sunny, I'm looking for those rugged guys-I'm letting weaklings die off in large parts of my garden in order to reduce maintenance.
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