Italian Cypress Cupressus sempervirens Nitschkes Needles

Nitschkes Needles is a selected Italian cypress grown for uniformity, and that is the whole argument for it. The foliage is fine and densely packed on a narrow column, closer in appearance to needles than the coarser scale sprays of a seedling tree, and every plant in a batch behaves the same way. That matters in a row. This is the driveway sentinel and the avenue tree, the one to specify when six or twelve plants have to line up and still match each other in ten years.

Planting a matched avenue

Full sun, free-draining soil and dry feet. Like all Italian cypress it comes from hot rocky Mediterranean country and it dies in ground that stays soggy, so raise the bed on clay and water at the roots rather than over the canopy. Set an avenue on a measured spacing, commonly 1.5m to 2m between plants where each column is read one at a time, and closer where the row has to knit into a solid screen. Use a string line, because uniform plants make any error in setting out obvious for the life of the planting. Buy a spare or two while you are at it and hold them in pots, since a gap in a matched row is the one thing you cannot replace convincingly later.

The one real failure mode here is spider mite. Through a hot dry inland summer, particularly against a north-facing wall or in still air, mite bronzes the foliage from the inside out, and because the foliage is so fine and dense the damage is well advanced by the time you notice it. Hose the canopy down in heat waves and check the interior for dusty grey webbing.

Where the selected form beats a seedling

Set beside seedling-grown stock the difference shows in the row rather than in any single tree. Seedlings vary in width, density and how tightly they hold their form, so an avenue of them never quite lines up. Italian Cypress - Cupressus sempervirens Stricta is the right pick for informal groups, single accents or a long boundary line where small variations do not read, and it comes in smaller sizes for volume planting. Take Nitschkes Needles when the planting is formal and repeated. If the scheme wants blue-grey instead of dark green, or you need large advanced specimens, Italian Cypress - Cupressus sempervirens Glauca is the one to order.

How little to cut

A selected form barely needs shaping, which is the point of buying one. Tip back stray shoots in late spring or summer to hold the outline, always in dry weather to limit canker risk, and never cut into the bare brown wood inside the column, because it will not reshoot and the hole is permanent. Feed in early spring with a low-nitrogen slow-release fertiliser and keep the mulch layer clear of the trunk. Tie the upper third loosely with soft wire if storms tend to open your columns. See more in feature trees.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 5 sizes, from 140mm up to 100L, priced from $16.95 to $649.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to fast growing screening plants.