These days any planting of any Lawson cypress anywhere in North America is a gamble - you probably should keep looking at possible choices.

Please explain further. Why is it a gamble?

Primarily because it is highly susceptible to a number of common water molds (Phytophthora sp). I would only consider planting one if grafted to a resistant root stock.

And like any number of other west coast natives, prefers cool summers and dislikes summer heat and humidity, so not always a good choice for much of the eastern half of the country, even if you could avoid the root rots.

Most of the PNW growers are grafting lawsonianas onto DR rootstock now. Easy to look for a graft union to be sure.

Thanks all for the very useful info.

The grafting onto resistant rootstock depends of course on infested soil or water never coming into contact with the scion, throughout the entire, intended useful life of the specimen. Presumably it still remains to be seen if replacing only the roots and a very short section of stem with resistant material is going to be consistently adequate.

I thought Phytophthora was a north american problem

ron (the other one)

" I thought Phytophthora was a north american problem "

Not at all! It is a worldwide problem......one of the many strains of phytophthora was the cause of the Great Potato Famine. And some are tropical in origin. And while 170 or so different strains of phytophthora have been identified (one as recently as 2019), there are estimates as high as 500 different strains could exist.

Hi Sara, Do you have any links to Henks web site?

A failed landmark planting of 'Alumii' in Tacoma was determined by one of the leading experts on Phytophthora to have more than one genus of root pathogens present.

I don't know that he has one but he is very active on FAcebook and that's how he tends to communicate. His email is henksgarden@hotmail.com. He's a peach!

Thanks Sara for the fast reply...
I was thinking maybe him and Edwin were visiting your garden...
Just a wild guess on my part...
Thanks again!
Al

It was Henk van Kempen and Peter Schrauwen. Edmin keeps threatening to come but never does! I will have to go see him!