Italian Cypress
Cupressus sempervirens
A tall, pencil-thin evergreen that brings a Mediterranean look as a striking accent or a narrow screen, and it keeps its shape without pruning. It becomes highly drought tolerant with age, though young trees need regular water. Plant it in full sun and soil that drains, since wet ground rots the roots.
- Mature size
- 50 × 7 ft
- 15 × 2.1 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 7a–10b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry
Italian Cypress at its mature size
A mature Italian Cypress grows 40 to 70 feet tall and 3 to 12 feet wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, San Marcos Growers.
Through the year
What Italian Cypress looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Year-round
Dense dark green scale-like foliage in a narrow column.
Photos
Growing Italian Cypress
- Grows well in
- The Plains and Mountain West, the desert Southwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Privacy screen, specimen, and drought tolerant
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Mediterranean
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Italian Cypress, that’s about 7 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Italian Cypress in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other cypresses
Wells Special Hinoki Cypress
Italian Cypress
Leyland Cypress
Bald CypressAll drawn to the same scale.