Italian Cypress Tree Seeds | (Cupressus sempervirens ‘Stricta’)

The exclamation point of the Mediterranean landscape. Narrow. Dramatic. Timeless.

Cupressus sempervirens 'Stricta', the Italian Cypress, is the most architecturally distinctive conifer in the world, its narrow columnar form rising straight and dark against the sky in a silhouette so specific that it has defined the visual identity of Tuscany, Provence, and the Mediterranean coast for thousands of years. In a landscape dominated by horizontal lines, the Italian Cypress provides vertical punctuation unlike anything else available to the gardener. It is drought-tolerant, heat-loving, deer-resistant, and virtually maintenance-free once established. If you are looking to buy Italian Cypress seeds or grow these iconic columnar conifers from seed, this is the tree that transforms a garden into something with presence and intention.

• Narrow, strictly columnar form providing dramatic vertical accent unlike any other conifer
• Extremely drought-tolerant and heat-loving, thriving in conditions that challenge most other conifers
• Deer-resistant, low-maintenance, and long-lived once established in well-drained soil
• Seed-grown trees produce natural variation in column tightness, form, and shade of green
• The defining tree of the Mediterranean landscape, immediately recognizable anywhere in the world

Things you probably did not know about the Italian Cypress

It has been cultivated in the Mediterranean for over 3,000 years. Italian Cypress appears in ancient Assyrian, Persian, and Greek art and architecture dating back to at least 1000 BC. It was planted at tombs, temples, and royal gardens across the ancient Mediterranean world where its evergreen nature and upward-pointing form symbolized immortality and the soul's ascent. The cypress-lined road to a Tuscan villa is a tradition with roots thousands of years deeper than Tuscany itself.

Van Gogh painted it obsessively during his year in Saint-Rémy. During his confinement at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in 1889 and 1890, Vincent van Gogh painted the cypress trees in the surrounding landscape over a dozen times. He described them in letters as beautiful as an Egyptian obelisk and as a dark stain in a sunlit landscape. The Starry Night, arguably the most recognized painting in Western art, features a massive Italian Cypress in the foreground.

The fragrant wood has been used for sacred purposes across civilizations. Italian Cypress wood is aromatic, durable, and resistant to rot and insects. The ancient Egyptians used it for sarcophagi. The Greeks built temple doors from it. The doors of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, according to tradition, were made from Italian Cypress and reportedly lasted over a thousand years before being replaced in the 15th century.

Seed-grown trees are never perfectly identical to each other. The strictly columnar form of the Stricta variety shows natural variation when grown from seed, with some seedlings developing slightly broader or more open habits than others. This variation means seed-grown groves have subtle differences in width and shade of green that give them a more natural, less regimented appearance than clonally propagated nursery stock.

Growing Details

• Botanical Name: Cupressus sempervirens 'Stricta'
• Stratification: Recommended, 30 to 60 days cold stratification
• USDA Zones: 7 to 11
• Soil: Well-drained, tolerates poor, rocky, or alkaline soils, does not tolerate wet or waterlogged conditions
• Light: Full sun
• Height: 40 to 70 feet
• Spread: 3 to 6 feet
• Growth Rate: Moderate, 1 to 2 feet per year

Plant them in pairs flanking an entrance or in a row defining a drive or garden axis. Nothing else makes a statement with such complete economy of space