Japanese umbrella pine

Does anyone grow/ has grown Sciadopitys verticillata, the Japanese umbrella pine? I saw one today and it looked nice and unusual. We don't buy Christmas trees but like to have a alternative to grow and keep. This caught my eye but I know very little beyond it being slow growing and a dinosaur aged species that isn't a pine.

There seems to be a lack of info regarding growing them and I saw they can suffer from die back but I don't know if it's because of inexperienced growers or poor care.

Can anyone share their experience?

 

Hi, I have one @Thevictorian .Mine is about 10ft high. Cannot remember how long I have had it but it will be about 15 years maybe.
It’s quite narrow growing, mine is in full sun and pretty good drainage. No special care just left to get in with it! The only thing which is slightly annoying is it has acquired a 2nd leader. I had a look at some images of these trees on the net and quite a few have the same issue.
Photo is taken off the net, not my tree but shows 3 sort of leaders. Totally hardy and mine has not suffered from any dieback.

 

Many thanks. I am tempted as it's so different from anything else but we don't have acidic soil, which they are supposed to prefer and it can be very dry. It seems they do well in pots for many years so I would have a while to figure things out.

 

Certainly my soil is on the acidic side being able to grow Rhododendron , Camellia, Pieris etc. I didn’t know they like acidic conditions, you live and learn!

 

Hi @hailbopp can I just ask, and it's not urgent if you don't know from inside, does your tree have brown tips to the branches this time of year? I ask as both the trees at the nursery have just the tip ends showing brown, with the rest of the needles the normal green colouration. I was wondering if this is normal or the start of leaf die off. I've seen a few horror stories in my research on the species, mostly where the leaves drop off after turning brown, so want to rule it out as a problem before I consider getting one.

Thanks

 

Hi @Thevictorian, yes mine is looking a bit brown to say the least. We went down to about -6oC about 10 days ago and expect it did not like that much.From memory it has had to deal with colder than that so hopefully it will not leg up!

 

Many thanks