It’s been a few years since we posted photos of one of our favorite conifers, Thujopsis dolobrata ‘Jurassic Park’. This little-known selection with dense, thick, plastic-like foliage, is most likely a tetraploid form of the wild species. We planted our first typical Thujopsis in 1999, but the cultivar Thujopsis ‘Jurrasic Park’ didn’t go into the ground until 2013. We’ve never been able to track back to its origin, but someone certainly recognized and appreciated its distinctive attributes. Our plant of the typical Thujopsis dolobrata ‘Hondai’ is now 20′ tall x 18′ wide, in 27 years, while our plant of Thujopsis ‘Jurassic Park’ is now 15′ tall x 13′ wide in 13 years.
Being a monotypic native to the mountains of Central and Southern Japan, Thujopsis can reach 100′ in height with great age. In gardens, they rarely reach 1/3 to 1/2 of that. Sadly, the growth rate of Thujopsis ‘Jurassic Park’ is slightly slower than what is desired for most wholesale nurserymen to produce., so the best place to find one would be from specialty nurseries who propagate their own plants. It is much slower and smaller than the commonly sold Thuja ‘Green Giant’, but in our opinion, much more elegant. The name Thujopsis, translates to “looks like Thuja, the American arborvitae genus.”
As you can see below, the foliage of ‘Jurassic Park’ is much darker green, and with a coarser texture.
If you’re dyslexic, you’ll be sure to the enjoy the undersides of the foliage, which is heavily flecked with beautiful silver scales.
