Cupressus Macrocarpa Pendula (Weeping Monterey Cypress)

In Baldassare Castiglione's 1528 The Book of the Courtier,  ‘Sprezzatura’ is defined by the author as "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it"

If the Italian Cupressus sempervirens ‘Pyramidalis’ has one fault (we love them but no one’s perfect),  it’s probably their demand for clipping, tidying and tailoring. One dropped stitch and your silhouette is ruined. Italians dress impeccably but it takes work.

But sometimes you really want your ladders to just collect dust for a bit (and get tangled in hoses no matter how tidily you coil them. No-one knows how this happens, it’s just a thing) and spend some quality time safely at ground level, admiring some trees which have Sprezzatura in abundance.

Macrocarpa Pendula is your shaggy friend. Yes, you’ll get a column, yes, you’ll have a densely dramatic plume of evergreen architectural structure, yes, it’s a fast grower (for a conifer) and yes it smells lovely: give it a cuddle on a hot day. But where the Italian cypress is perhaps a bit of a stiff skyward thrust of vertical branches, macrocarpa drapes and oozes Wookily to form pillars of frothy green fluff all soft and buxom. More of a friendly Nordic Wilderman than a preppy Tuscan rake.

Weeping, evergreen and pretty tough, too. This variety was discovered in the 1950s at Glencormac, County Wicklow where it now stands 20m tall and only 8m across. So that gives you an idea of its general proportions, tall and narrow but not too stark.

Likes to be in moist and well drained soils. Give it full sun and after that it’ll romp away in any aspect really. Reliably good in windy spots and you’ll never have to fret over flopped branches because they have the flop built-in.

 N.B. When clipping several plants with the same tool, have a bucket containing a 5% bleach solution and swish your blades around for 30 seconds between plants to sterilise them. This will help avoid the chance of cross contamination of disease.

As with all woody plants, plant high, exposing as much of the taper at the base of the trunk as possible. Allowing soil to accumulate round the base of a tree can be fatal. Keep very well-watered when first planted.