Collection Pencil trees
Grown Tuscany, Italy
Sold as Matched pairs
From £245 the pair
Pencil Trees — Matched Pairs
All height. No footprint.
The slimmest vertical in topiary: Italian cypress, the tree of the Tuscan avenue, sold as true matched pairs from 1.1 m to 2.7 m — Mediterranean exclamation marks that take a footprint barely wider than a pot, selected together near Florence and photographed side by side at our UK depot before dispatch.
Matched pairs from £245 · delivered kerbside UK-wide
How to chooseOne silhouette.Three truths.
Everything a pencil tree asks of you, and everything it gives back.
What a pencil tree is
Cupressus sempervirens — Italian cypress, the tree of the Tuscan avenue itself, the dark column that punctuates every hilltop road out of Florence. The pencil is not clipped into shape so much as born to it: the column grows naturally tight, which is why it asks less trimming than any other form on the site.
Height per footprint
Every garden has a budget of ground; almost none has a budget of sky. A pencil buys its height with a footprint barely wider than its pot — up is the dimension small spaces have free, and no other plant spends it as efficiently. It's the logic behind our whole small gardens guide.
The two rules
Italian cypress asks only two things, both Mediterranean: full sun and sharp drainage. Give it those and Britain suits it fine — it's winter wet, never winter cold, that does the damage. In a pot, drainage is entirely in your control; the exact compost-and-crocks recipe is in the pots guide.
Where the verticalearns its place.
Three deployments. One pinned frame. Scroll.
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The Mediterranean terrace
Sun, terracotta, gravel — the pencil's home ground, translated. A pair of columns against a pale wall gives a British patio the grammar of a Tuscan courtyard: hard light, dark verticals, and shadows that move round like a sundial. This is the fastest single route to a Mediterranean garden that reads as designed rather than themed.
Framing gates & doorways
A matched pair of pencils either side of a gate or door works like a pair of vertical exclamation marks — the eye is lifted, the threshold is announced, and the symmetry photographs as established from day one. The wider entrance collection holds every form that does this job; the pencil does it in the least ground.
The smallest gardens & balconies
Where a ball would crowd and a cone would loom, a pencil simply stands — presence without occupation. On a balcony or in a courtyard a potted pair delivers more architecture per square foot than anything else we grow, which is why they anchor the balcony & terrace collection.
Four pairs.Every price, honest.
Drag through the range — matched-pair prices including VAT, banded by height.
N° 01
Italian cypress 'Stricta' — the tightest, truest column in the canon, 1.1–2 m.
£245 – £535
N° 02
'Pyramidalis', the classic pencil cypress — the tallest bands here, to 2.5 m.
£375 – £670
Drag · Scroll
Every pair is priced by height band — from £245 at 1.1–1.3 m to £670 at the tallest — and every price is the pair, including VAT. Where the whole market sits, form by form, is mapped in the topiary prices guide.
Four varieties.One discipline.
Deep green classics and one golden exception — pick by height first, then by colour.
N° 01
The definitive deep-green pencil — the slimmest profile, and the gentlest entry price.
N° 02
The classic avenue cypress — a touch fuller in the column, and the tallest greens here.
N° 04
The golden exception — lime-gold foliage, citrus scent when brushed, statement height.
Honesty first: pencils are sun-hungry. Deep shade or waterlogged clay will defeat them — for those sites the answer is English yew, which shrugs at both. And if you want the vertical with more theatre, the same height reads baroque as a spiral and architectural as a cone — the full collection holds all three side by side.
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Selected together · raised side by side · photographed before dispatch
Buying pencil trees.Quick answers.
The questions buyers actually ask, answered by the growers.
What are pencil trees?
Pencil trees are Italian cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) — the naturally columnar evergreen that lines the avenues of Tuscany. The column grows tight of its own accord rather than being clipped into shape, which makes the pencil the slimmest and lowest-maintenance vertical in topiary. Ours come as true matched pairs, grown side by side in Tuscany.
How tall do pencil trees grow — and do they stay slim?
Our pairs arrive between 1.1 m and 2.7 m tall, and yes — slimness is the variety, not the trimming. 'Stricta', 'Pyramidalis' and 'Totem' are all selected precisely because they hold the column; left entirely alone an Italian cypress gains height far faster than width, and a light annual tidy keeps even that in hand.
How much do pencil trees cost?
Matched pairs run from £245 (a 1.1–1.3 m 'Stricta' or 'Totem' pair) to £670 (a 2–2.5 m 'Pyramidalis' pair), including VAT, priced by height band. The golden Goldcrest pair sits at £615 for a full 2.5–2.7 m. Every figure on this page is the price of both plants, never one.
Can Italian cypress live in pots in the UK?
Happily — in some ways a pot suits them better than the ground, because drainage is entirely in your control. Use a generous frost-proof pot with real drainage holes, a gritty free-draining compost, weekly watering checks through the growing season and pot feet from October. The full recipe is in the pots guide.
Do Italian cypress survive UK winters?
Yes — given the two Mediterranean conditions of full sun and sharp drainage. Cold itself is rarely the problem; winter wet is the enemy, because roots sitting in cold waterlogged soil are what kill a cypress. Free-draining ground or a well-crocked pot on feet sees them through British winters year after year.
Do pencil trees need trimming?
Barely — that's the pencil's whole bargain. A light tidy once a year, running over any stray tips, keeps the column immaculate. The one rule: never cut into old bare wood, as cypress doesn't regrow from it. Trim the green surface only, and the shape looks after itself.
Where is the best position for a pencil tree?
The sunniest, best-drained spot you own: a south- or west-facing terrace, either side of a gate or door, or the corner of a patio. Avoid deep shade and heavy waterlogged clay entirely, and on hard-exposed windy sites stake young columns for their first seasons — a tall slim tree presents a sail until its roots take hold.
How are pencil trees delivered — and what's guaranteed?
Kerbside on a pallet by specialist haulier, UK-wide, 14–21 working days from order, with the driver phoning about an hour ahead. Every pair is photographed side by side at our UK depot before dispatch, backed by the 7-day Matching Guarantee, the 6-month Thrive Guarantee and Lifetime Care Support — details at delivery & returns.
Matched beforeyou ever see it.
Two columns, selected together in Tuscany, raised as twins — so the symmetry at your gate is grown, not approximate.
Your actual pair, side by side at our UK depot, before the pallet is built.
7-day Matching Guarantee, then the 6-month Thrive Guarantee through establishment.
Lifetime Care Support — a photo gets grower answers for as long as you own the plants.
