Cryptomeria Japonica Spiralis Japanese Cedar

Cryptomeria Japonica Spiralis is an evergreen conifer with spiralling green foliage and pendulous branchlets. It’s an unusual compact evergreen shrub that’s excellent for landscaping, rockeries, and slopes.

Cryptomeria Japonica is better known as Japanese Cedar. It’s native to Japan where it’s a popularly cultivated shrub. The variety Japanese Cedar Spiralis likely emerged from Japan in the mid-19th century.

This is a low-growing conifer. It has long, elegant pendulous branchlets with bright green needles that curl inwards and spiral around each branch like a braid. Its needles are stiff and dense enough to form a solid focal point and they remain bright, cheerful green all year round.

Japanese Cedar Spiralis is an unusual evergreen, synonymous with Cryptomeria Japonica Nejire and sometimes called granny’s ringlets, that brings colour, form and interest to all garden styles with minimal effort.

Height and Spread of Cryptomeria Japonica Spiralis
Japanese Cedar Spiralis is slow growing and can be considered a dwarf conifer. It reaches just one metre by one metre within 10 ten years.

How Hardy is Cryptomeria Japonica Spiralis
This Japanese cedar is a fully hardy evergreen that tolerates minus temperatures and the full sun once it’s established. It’s rarely affected by pests or diseases and copes with some pollution.

How To Use Cryptomeria Japonica Spiralis
Excellent for low-growing architectural shapes and year-round colour, this evergreen’s unconventional rope-like foliage is a real talking point. It’s a good choice for mixed borders that lack winter colour, texturizing rockeries, low maintenance spaces, and large well-watered balcony containers.
Its compact conical shape improves urban courtyards, providing a zing of lime green without any high-maintenance gardening work or pruning.

How To Care For Cryptomeria Japonica Spiralis
Japanese Cedar Spiralis is easy to grow and tolerates the majority of free-draining soil including sand and chalk. Position it in full sun to partial shade. Although it copes with exposure, its foliage can be damaged by harsh drying winds, so a sheltered spot is preferable.
It doesn’t require regular pruning, but its height and spread are easily restricted by removing the longer branches with a sharp pair of secateurs.
Water it well until established and frequently in hot months if it’s container grown. Mulch and fertiliser in spring will promote new bright needles.
Any container-grown shrub needs feet beneath the container to enable sufficient drainage.