WHEN I CAME TO THIS GARDEN more than 20 years ago, I brought just two plants, tucked into the back of the moving van last-minute by movers who looked at me as if to say, “Really, lady?” One was a clump of dark purple Siberian iris tossed into a recycled produce-store bushel basket; the other a young Japanese umbrella pine I’d had for only a few years and just couldn’t seem to leave behind. Thank goodness I didn’t. Sciadopitys verticillata is the fourth in my series on beloved conifers.
That transplanting of the young umbrella pine will be 23 years ago this fall. At that time, I had never seen another except in botanical-garden collections; unusual or rare was the word. Now they’re at nurseries, but usually quite small and always quite expensive, and they’re pretty easy to kill, at least at first. But what did I know when I uprooted the tree and had it put in that truck?
I was just getting really serious about plants, and was a beginning garden writer, meaning I had the privilege of getting paid to visit gardens and nurseries and interview experts for stories. Those years formed my advanced education in horticulture—and also my downfall in self-control. Everybody showed me or told me about something I simply had to have. Or two or three.
An umbrella pine first spoke to me in a come-hither voice at Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay, Long Island, a place I’d visited a lot as a teenager that happily became part of my “beat” as garden editor of Long Island-based Newsday newspaper.
Its needles are arranged in whorls, like the spokes in an umbrella, hence the name (see detail photo). And there’s something else attention-grabbing about the foliage: Visitors to the garden often come to find me to ask about the “tree over there with the plastic-looking needles,” since they’re so thick and lustrous. (Technically, it also has another kind of leaf, the tiny scale leaves on the stems, but nobody notices those, at least not at first.)
That’s the umbrella pine, I say, and it’s not actually a pine at all.
It’s an ancient thing, and like Ginkgo has been around since dinosaur times, also forming the solitary species in its genus and family. Other odd bits: The umbrella pine’s cones take nearly two years to size up after pollination. When experts come here and see how many my tree bears, they always tell me that last fact, to make sure I am properly impressed.
The tree, whose foliage is much darker green and sometimes even bronzy in winter (bottom photo), grows to perhaps 30 feet tall in a garden setting and half or more as wide (much bigger in the wild), and has beautiful reddish bark you never see unless you crawl around beneath. (Which I just did 10 minutes ago to scavenge a couple of cones for that photo, since I cannot reach the ones way up in its topmost section with arm or even lens.)
One year, after very heavy snowfall threatened to disfigure the tree or even break off limbs, friends suggested shearing it one spring, just as the new growth or candles emerged. This gentle tipping back seems to have reduced the umbrella pine’s inclination to get more lax with age, at least for the moment. It also made it more pyramidal in shape.
Umbrella pines hail from cloud forests in Japan, where rainfall and humidity are both high, so don’t expect Sciadopitys to cooperate with drought. Baby it in the first year or two after transplanting, in particular. If you want to grow one in the warmer end of its range (Zones 5 to 7 or 8), protection from the midday sun would be appreciated. Oh, and one more “expert” tip: Skip the stupid moving-van caper I somehow got away with.
Hello, Margaret. Yes, the Umbrella Pine is a wonderful primitive tree. A young boyscout happened to come by our house a few years ago. He looked at the tree and said “What kind of tree is this?” I was so pleased that even a young person understood that this was a unique tree. Is there a way I could send you a photo of one of the “sprouting” cones?
A client of mine planted a umbrella pine a few weeks ago from a container into her yard. now the tree is clorises, Do you know if this is just transplant shock or if the tree has a mineral defiency ?
Hi, Patrick. You think it has chlorosis – i.e., yellow foliage from root damage or nutrient deficiency or other problems? How much yellow over how much of the tree, and how fast?
we have a 40 ft. Japanese umbrella pine in our yard in southern NH which has weathered many harsh winters. Last winter our tree sustained some damage in it’s lower limbs. A number of branches had needles that turned a rather bright reddish brown. They seem to stay on the tree. We have noticed a little new growth over the past summer. Do we trim these branches off? what do you think the problem is?
It is a stunning tree and we want to not lose it.
Thank you.
Mark
Hi, Mark. A combination of factors can affect how evergreens in particular hold up in winter, including when there is a dry season in the preceding summer/fall, which can make them more apt to burn in winter winds/sun, for instance. I have had winterburn on small parts of my umbrella pine a few times, though thankfully not extensive damage.
My usual rule of thumb with woody things is if the branch is still flexible (not brittle), I figure there is some hope that it’s alive. So I wait. The brown needles won’t revive (usually they will eventually pull out if you merely rub the branches), but I like to wait and see if the branch itself will push some new growth before I go cutting it off. Not sure how long since the problem began (“last winter” meaning just the last few months or the year before?).
Thanks for your quick response, Margaret.
The problem occurred during the winter of 2010-11. The dead needles have been holding on for quite a while. I’m just wondering if it’s hurting the tree more to keep them on, or take the more badly damaged ones off.
Also, unrelated to this– I’m not sure if I have a tree or trees. There are 2 trunks that seem to be joined near the ground level. One trunk is only a few feet smaller than the other. Is this a property of this type of tree?
Mark
Hi, Mark. Many umbrella pines are multi-stemmed (but just one tree). It doesn’t hurt the tree to hold dead foliage, except in a heavy snowstorm or ice storm when any extra foliage can take on extra load. I suspect you’ll find that by now they will come off easily if you pull on them — just see if the branch behind them is still alive or not before you cut it off. Sometimes I have had some parts of a branch die and not other side branches a little farther up or down the line.
I have a windmill pine in my yard that I have been nursing along for the past ten years or more, since it was about 1.5′ tall. It is now 5.5′ in height. Unfortunately a deer made his lunch of it one day and stripped out or damaged every branch in the middle two feet of the tree. It looks pathetic! Any suggestions about what I can do to minimize the damage and make the tree look OK again?
I don’t know what a windmill pine is, Karen, I hate to say — what genus/species it is (a true pine, genus Pinus, and do you have the rest of its name)? Long-needled, short ??? Generally speaking that kind of severe disfiguration isn’t going to be easy to correct, unless you are OK with a lolly-pop (leaving the top and cutting off everything else). Oh, my.
Thank’s for all your help Margaret. One last thing– is there any type of fertilizer that would be beneficial for the umbrella pine? Thanks
My umbrella pine ia about 5 years old and 5 feet tall now. The deer did a job on one side in the winter of 2010 so I put a fence around it last year. and that helped as it has come back and filled in pretty well. Now I have another problem . It is beginning to turn yellow on the side facing a 35 foot black walnut tree ….is the Black walnut toxicity affecting the pine as it is in within the drip line of the walnut..
We also have a rich loamy soil so I might need to add acid to it. OR should I move the umbrella pine.
Margaret, I forgot to say that the Umbrella Pine(which I read is not actually a pine) is within a 50′ distance to the dripline of the 35′ walnut tree that I mentioned above and is along the southern coast of RI.
Hi, Mary. SO many possibilities…and I don’t know about the allelopathic effects of the black walnut on the umbrella pine specifically. However, winter windburn/sunburn (especially in a dry or too-fast-draining soil) can happen as well. Are you near the shore and is it windy? Our winter here inland was very windy and dry. What I’d do: Did you buy it from a local nursery? I’d be in touch with them in the hopes that they have some experience with it (or you could take a snapshot with you to show them). Sorry not to be able to tell from here. :)
Thanks Margaret……am waiting to hear from the nurseryman now. Just discovered your site and have been interested in comments from the other owners of these trees.
Hi Margaret,
I just fell in love with a 5′ umbrella pine at our nursery. It would have to live in the house, south window with overhand, but some morning sun. (we get to -35 here, zone 4. We are at 6,200 ‘ feet here in Carbondale, CO.
I think it would need humidity help and wonder how I could enhance that. Also, can it live inside OK? Please say yes…
Thanks, Alison
Hi, Alison. I don’t think you can grow it in the house, sorry to say. It gets to be a giant tree, plus it wants a winter (though a little less cold than yours). You could probably grow it in a giant pot for 5 years or thereabouts, and wheel it into the garage/shed in winter for protection, but it would eventually outgrow that situation (and the building would have to be well-insulated, though not heated). What did the nursery selling it have to say about how the plant is doing locally — or are they only selling it to people at lower elevation or ????
Thank you, Margaret. for info on Umbrella Pine. Think your site, is splendid, yet personal. I will ask about the tree at this altitude, because of curiosity.. And thank you so much for discouraging inside. I will control my desire to have it! Some people have large greenhouses here–alas, not me. Nurseryman wintered one over last year in a protected space.
Both a ficus, then a Norfolk Island pine grew in that spot (to about 9 feet, each.)
A light-filtering and privacy tree would be nice in or near that window inside (the aspens outside had to be cut down, in twelve years they grew to 40 feet tall and over a foot in diameter. High winds here.
Any tree ideas for inside? And don’t worry about size, as it will outlast me, I think.
Alison
Margaret.
Could vine maple, inc. the Japanese varieties, be grown inside. Nights are 60 degrees inside, colder in winter.
Alison
I have wanted one of these trees for years ever since I saw the first one! Yesterday purchased a Japanese Umb. Pine ‘Joe Kozey” at a local nursery – says grows only 7′ x 2′. Am wondering if I could plant in a big container for just outside my front door. I live in zone 7.
Hi, Gloria. If it’s really 7 by 2, why not…but the pot has to be VERY big to insulate the roots really well. VERY big. Have never seen a dwarf one.
Margaret, I have an Umbella Pine purchased at a nursery about 10 years ago, and seems tall and thin. The tree is now about 10 feet tall, and the diameter at the bottom is probably 4 feet or less, and while each branch appears healthy, on whole it looks like is needs to fill out a bit. Is there any way to prune the top or feed it to help it thicken up a bit. I am in Zone 5, outside of Boston. Thanks
Hi, John. One year to sort of thicken mine up a bit we pinched the candles (fresh new growth) back partway over the whole thing, but it is a tedious and very fussy task on a big plant. Is it getting good light, water, nutrients?
Thanks, Margaret. Have done more internet reading and evidently this selection is okay for container. Just got the beauty home – had to use a friend to transport – so I am anxious to get it settled, but may not actually “plant” in ground or in big pot for a week or so. Have to keep moist I know till settled in.
Other plant purchased this weekend is a Wysteria ‘Amethyst Falls’ – anxiious to see it get going through the support structure.
Thanks Margaret, on my skinny tree, what kind of nutrients do you recommend? It gets pleanty of sun & adequate water, I think. Other nearby plants (rhododendrons) and grass are doing fine.
I have an 30+ umbrella pine and not sure how to trim it. I was told that you have to be careful trimming this tree. I need to trim bottom branches that are blocking the entrance to the driveway and don’t want to kill this beautiful tree. Thanks for your help!!!
Hi, Tara. Work your way back on the lower branches to find a discreet spot to trim, such as back to form a ‘Y’ (there are usually two side shoots behind the longest tip of every branch). If you work carefully the tree will cover up the losses. You can also raise the skirt a bit by cutting off a very low branch or two or three, exposing some trunk. But as I say get under there and look at the way the branches and side branchlets form and it will reveal itself to you.