February Shrub of the Month-Gold Mop Cypress

Chamaecyparis pisifera’ Golden Mop’ Japanese falsecypress, or in the trade, just plain ole, gold mop. The gold mop is quickly becoming one of our area’s most popular landscape shrubs. The bright gold foliage pops against the darker greens of other plants, and with being evergreen–or in this case, ever-gold, it’s a show that lasts year-round. The natural habit is a loose, rounded shape when very young that matures to a more pyramidal shape while still maintaining its ‘hang-loose’ attitude. 3-5’ is usually the max height and width.

Golden mops like well-drained soil and prefers sun but will tolerate some shade, sacrificing the brightness and density of its thread-like yellow foliage. Shelter from harsh winds is appreciated.

What I love about it? Great year-round foliage color. It makes a great background for other blooming plants during the warm season, then continues the color show during winter. The natural shape is graceful and flowing with an interesting texture. It’s very low maintenance, not requiring shearing or pruning typically.

What’s not so great. It’s becoming overused in the industry. It can be prone to bagworms. For some reason, people feel the need to shear it with hedge trimmers into a boxwood-shaped ball, ruining the natural grace of the plant, and unnecessarily expanding their ‘To-Do’ list. Why make something low maintenance into something high maintenance? If you want to maintain a certain height or width, hand prune the long, new-growth stems with hand pruners, not hedge trimmers, please … or just buy a boxwood.