Fall Color and Care of Bald Cypress

Add some airy texture and fall color to the landscape with a bald cypress. The ferny leaves turn a beautiful coppery bronze before dropping to the ground in fall.

Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), larches including tamarack and dawn redwoods are all deciduous conifers. This means they produce cones like pines and spruces, but lose their needles each fall. New needles will appear in spring.

Fall color and needle drop at other times can be caused by transplant shock, extended drought and other environmental stressors.

Proper watering, mulching and care especially in the first few years will improve the health and longevity of all your trees.

Bald cypress grows best in moist sandy loam soil, but I have seen them grown successfully in clay soils and as street trees. The trees may suffer chlorosis, yellowing of needles, in high pH soils.

A bit more information: Don’t worry about knees popping up in the lawn. These oxygen fixing knobby root growths that we call knees appear when a tree is grown in water.