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Small, golden and unjustifiably cute 🪙
Family: Cupressaceae · Pot diameter: 19cm · Height: 25–30cm
Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Tsatsumi Gold’ is a small golden Hinoki cypress that seems to have woven its own luminous, irregular dome. Fine filamentous sprays interlace, bend and twist in different directions, with occasional strange flattened tips opening among them like little golden fans. Deeper green inside lends shadow and volume to the bright outer growth, making the crown look dense, alive and different from every viewpoint.
It follows neither the discipline of a cone nor that of a column. Its twisted framework gathers into a rounded, slightly flattened mass, broken by small hollows and projections like a sculpture spun from golden thread. At an entrance, in a quiet corner or within a Japanese-inspired composition, it becomes a luminous focal point, setting off dark stone, deep plum foliage and soft silver textures with an effortless, jewel-like glow.
Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Tsatsumi Gold’ received the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit in 2012.
A slow irregular dome of interwoven filamentous sprays, golden-yellow tips and unexpected flattened terminals.
Twisted axes and filamentous sprays overlap to build a dense, irregular and slightly flattened dome.
Outer tips open bright yellow over a greener, shaded interior.
Tiny scale leaves clothe flattened branchlets that turn through different planes.
Why you will love it: it provides golden light, tactile detail and sculptural movement without frequent clipping to impose character.
Use it as a slowly evolving focal point by an entrance, at a border corner or in a Japanese-influenced composition, allowing about 1–1.2m for the crown. In a container it needs generous root room, steady moisture and free drainage.
Warm yellow gains depth beside dark purple foliage, low blue needles and fine silver lines.
Full sun for the strongest gold; in a very hot, reflective site, give morning sun and light afternoon shade.
Keep the root zone evenly moist and cool while the plant establishes, and water deeply through summer heat without waterlogging it.
Very cold hardy at RHS H7, although hot, dry winds can scorch exposed golden tips.
Not intended for consumption; wear gloves while pruning and wash hands after handling.
Give open light and air movement, with shelter from scorching afternoon sun and dry wind in very hot districts.
Water deeply before the whole root zone dries, especially during its first two summers and in a container.
Choose cool, moderately fertile, well-drained acid to neutral soil; it tolerates some chalk but not stagnant water.
Apply a light evergreen feed in spring only when growth is weak; excess nutrition loosens the habit.
Remove only dead growth or stray green tips and never cut deeply into bare brown wood, which seldom reshoots.
Maintain an organic surface mulch away from the stem and increase deep watering during a prolonged heatwave.
Move it in cool weather with the root ball intact and keep its upper surface level with the surrounding soil.
Wear gloves while pruning, keep cut material away from eyes and mouth and do not treat it as edible.
Bright scale-leaved branchlets open in different directions around the low crown.
Filamentous sprays lengthen, twist and overlap into a dense rounded mass.
The irregular evergreen outline remains while the outer tips deepen towards warmer gold.
At approximately ten years, Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Tsatsumi Gold’ reaches about 1.3m in height and 1m in width. Twisted axes, interwoven filamentous sprays and a few irregular flattened terminals fill a dense, uneven and slightly flattened dome rather than a column or a formal cone.
The drawings retain the interwoven globose architecture in both stages while changing the density and colour of the young growth.
What to expect after planting: Each spring, luminous tips add a little volume while older sprays become greener inside. Change is slow, and the twisted interwoven dome becomes denser with age.
The story of ‘Tsatsumi Gold’ begins with a Japanese selection of Chamaecyparis obtusa, the Hinoki cypress cultivated for centuries for its fine fans and distinctive forms. Surviving records do not securely preserve the original selector’s name, the precise date or its first asexual propagation.
Nursery literature often describes it as a probable golden sport of the green ‘Tsatsumi’. Similar architecture supports that account, but the exact parentage has not been confirmed, so this account remains plausible rather than proven.
The selection was in European cultivation by the early 1980s. Its slow dense irregular dome, twisted filamentous branchlets and luminous yellow tips distinguished it from the more regular pyramidal forms of the species.
Long European cultivation brought wider recognition, and in 2012 the Royal Horticultural Society gave ‘Tsatsumi Gold’ its Award of Garden Merit.
Adult leaves are tiny overlapping scales on flattened branchlets, not long needles.
Stomatal bands create whitish markings on the undersides of the fans, a characteristic Hinoki-cypress detail.
Small female cones are built from shield-like woody scales and mature from green to brown.
Six specific answers about shape, mature size, colour, light, pruning and the origin of Tsatsumi Gold.
It slowly forms a dense, irregular and slightly flattened globose dome of twisted, interwoven sprays.
At approximately ten years, allow about 1.3m in height and 1m in spread, with natural variation according to site and cultivation.
Older shaded fans are naturally greener, while the strongest gold appears on illuminated young tips.
Sun strengthens the gold, but light afternoon shelter in a very hot, reflective site reduces tip scorch.
No. Preserve its natural twisted habit and remove only dead growth or stray young tips, without cutting deeply into brown wood.
Not conclusively. It is regarded as a probable golden sport of ‘Tsatsumi’, but the exact parentage has not been confirmed.
