Chamaecyparis pisifera

 The Sawara cypress is almost completely unknown to the general public though it has been grown in Finland since the early 1900s. It is a popular garden tree in its native Japan where, over the centuries, a huge range of selected forms has been produced. Some of these retain their juvenile needle form of foliage, like this ‘Squarrosa’ variety. It so confused western botanists that at first it was ascribed to its own genus Retinospora. Normally the cypresses have scale-like leaves, like the thujas, or arborvitae.

The Sawara cypress is a conifer species belonging to the genus Chamaecyparis, the false cypresses. In its native Japan it can reach 50 metres tall on the middle slopes of cold moist mountains. The Sawara is probably the hardiest of the genus and has grown well in the south of Finland, including Mustila, since the 1930s.