Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress (Hesperocyparis glabra 'Carolina Saphire') - foliage plant, illustrated plant cardIllustration

Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress

Hesperocyparis glabra 'Carolina Saphire'

Also called carolina sapphire cypress

Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress is grown for its foliage rather than flowers, giving the garden structure and color all season long.

Bloom time
Foliage plant
checked
Hardiness
Zones 7–9
checked
Sun
Full sun
checked
Water
Low water
checked
Mature size
43 ft × 14 ft
checked
Type
Conifer
house classification

Months here are Northern Hemisphere months; in the Southern Hemisphere, shift them by six months.

Growing Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress

Plant it in full sun. It prefers low water. It is hardy in USDA zones 7–9. Expect it to reach about 43 ft tall and 14 ft wide at maturity, in roughly 10 years (a house reading).

Pets

  • Not yet checked for pets.

Lists differ and none is complete. If a pet eats a plant and seems unwell, call a veterinarian or a pet poison helpline.

No toxicity note is on file for Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress. That is not a clearance: check its safety for people and pets before planting.

Verification
What was checked

Nine facts were checked against named botanical sources, each recorded beside the sources that carried it: mature height and spread, hardiness zones, sun, water, bloom months and color, the trait tags, and years to mature size, which rests on a recorded house rule where no publisher states one and is marked so. Soil, diseases, pests, toxicity and the plant's own names have not yet been read for this plant, and its trait tags are the ones a feature uses rather than every word a page prints. Each fact above carries its own mark. The planting, spacing and size sections are derived from these checked facts by a fixed rule, not checked separately, and the plant type is the library's own classification.

See the 8 sources it was checked against

When to plant Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress

Plant Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress in spring once the soil is workable, or by very early fall at the latest: an evergreen needs its roots down well before the ground freezes. In zone 8, the middle of its hardy zones 7 to 9, that is February to April, or September on the fall side.

Month-by-month timing for your zone is on the planting calendar; if you garden near zone 8, the middle of this plant's hardy range, start with zone 8 in February. Derived from the plant's category, zones and bloom months plus typical zone frost dates, not checked separately.

How big does Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress get?

Illustration of Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress drawn to scale beside an adult43 fttall5 ft 7 inan adult14 ftwide
About 43 ft tall and 14 ft wide at maturity: about 8 times as tall as an adult.

See Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress in a garden plan: the planner shows it in 3D beside everything else you add, growing toward this size over the years.

How far apart to plant Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress

Derived from the mature spread above by a fixed rule, not checked separately: spacing is the spread, center to center.

Give Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress about 14 ft of clear ground in every direction, measured from its center. It is one plant with room around it, not a row, and a raised bed is too small for it.

Clear ground around it
14 ft in every direction

Add Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress to a garden plan and the planner draws it at its full width, so you see the spacing before you buy.

Where these facts come from

Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress' height, spread, hardiness zones, sun, water and trait tags were checked against 8 published sources on October 15, 2026. Each one is linked below with every fact it carried, which can include a fact this page still marks as not yet checked, because a source carrying a value is not the same as the value being held to the standard. Facts not in that list, and the planting, spacing and size sections, are not covered by these sources. Bloom was checked as well: Carolina Sapphire Arizona Cypress bears no flowers, so there is no bloom window for a source to carry.

How the checking works, and what each standard covers, is on the verified plants page.

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