can anyone tell me the name of those famous trees that dot the tuscany landscape? i want to plant them in my chicagoland backyard! also, on my recent visit to LOS ANGELES, I FOUND those same trees in abundance!!! (i broke my wrist and can't type as well as i would like!)

Are you thinking of cypress trees?

I'm not a botanist, but I think even a botanist would need a somewhat clearer description...

I associate Tuscany with two kinds of trees in particular: olive trees (their leaves are green on one side and silver-coloured on the other, so that the colours shift in the breeze) and cypresses (tall, flame-shaped evergreens; considered by some -- but not me -- to be trees of mourning).

I'm not a botanist, but I think even a botanist would need a somewhat clearer description...

I associate Tuscany with two kinds of trees in particular: olive trees (their leaves are green on one side and silver-coloured on the other, so that the colours shift in the breeze) and cypresses (tall, flame-shaped evergreens).

Sorry about the repetition. I wanted to drop the reference to mourning but obviously did it too late...

I think the trees are Italian Cypress trees.

You are probably thinking of the Italian cypress trees but there is also the beautiful umbrella pine which is just what it sounds like, a pine tree that is shaped like an umbrella.

i realize now that there are two kinds of the trees. i am thinking of the cypress tree, but i do like the umbrella tree, also. thanks for helping me out. now, i just wonder how the cypress will fair in my midwest climate?

The botanical name is "sempervirens fastigiata", a slow-growing column.

They need full sun and long, hot summers; they would not be hardy for a Chicago climate. Sorry.

thanks. i kind of figured that would be the case, since i haven't seen any around chicago. any suggestions on something similar that might survive this climate, even bushes of some kind?

There are varieties of Yaupons that look similar to the Italian Cypress that would survive your climate. You would have to do some research. The variety I've seen is more slender but very upright, columnar.

thanks, sandi. i'll check into whatever suggestions i get here.

I have a friend who lives up in Upper Penninsula Michigan and said that they have a whole boulevard lined with those cypress trees, which is interesting now because of what Tuck said about the warm climates. Apparently the trees were given as a gift from a city in Italy, or something like that. Anyway, I don't know how they last, but they apparently have.

Anyway, cypresses are often planted around cemeteries (hence the mourning reference), but somewhat lately I guess they have become a popular tree in people's yards here in Italy, or as a way of bordering a street.

I have only really noticed Umbrella trees around Rome and Lazio, but I could be totally wrong about that.

Jackie - your Michigan friend may be referring to Lombardy poplars. Tall and columnar and often found along highways in Europe, they're deciduous (leaf-shedding) and not coniferous as are the cypress (evergreens). They'd be hardy for that zone I believe.

BTW, a few nights ago I saw on Le Journal, the French tv news program, that regions of France were hit by rarely-seen tornadoes and an entire line of these highway poplars were struck down. I believe this was in Provence. A sorry sight!