Baldcypress are an American native, whose native range extends from Delaware south to Florida, west to Illinois, Missouri and south from there to Louisiana and Texas.They have been planted far outside of this range though, and have been found to be hardy to 30 below zero Fahrenheit. Specimens can be found in Canada and Minnesota.

Their natural habitat is poorly drained (think swampland) rich alluvial soils, but they are very adaptable, growing in sand or clay, and in dry soils as well. The Cypress swamps of the Carolina's and Louisiana are the quintessential habitat, with Spanish moss and alligators. The one soil attribute that will not be to their liking would be a high pH, as leaf chlorosis (yellowing of the foliage) occurs.

Baldcypress are generally narrowly pyramidal in youth, growing at a fairly fast rate (2 feet per year when they are correctly sited which is fast for a tree) in their early years, slowing as they reach middle age, and finally becoming irregularly flat-topped as an older plant. The eventual height in the wild can reach above seventy feet, but under cultivation they generally top out at sixty or so feet, with a spread of only a quarter of that.

One of about six species of deciduous conifers, Baldcypress trees lose their
leaves in the fall, just like a Maple or an Oak. The leaves turn a bronze or pumpkin orange in November, lasting for about a week or ten days. Subtle as compared to the Maples and other trees and shrubs highlighted in this column, yet beautiful in its own right.

Baldcypress are available in the nursery trade, either in pots or balled-andburlapped. They are supposed to be hard to transplant because of a taproot, but if properly root-pruned in the nursery, this problem seems to be negligible. Again planting in the right spot (wet soil, full sun is best) is important, and then you have a carefree, pest-free deciduous conifer to add to your collection. By the way, the others are the American Larch, the European Larch, the Dawn-Redwood and another species of Taxodium.

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