From a strong-growing shoot in the upper crown of a young tree. PS not Chamaecyparis anymore, Nootka Cypress is more closely related to Cupressus and Juniperus than it is to Chamaecyparis, and is treated as either Cupressus nootkatensis, Xanthocyparis nootkatensis or Callitropsis nootkatensis (take your pick!)
Xanthocyparis may prevail. Lead shoots may not be necessary for upright growth of propagules of 'Pendula'.
I have taken strong side branch cuttings, and staked them the first year after rooting; they are now growing strongly upright (but still weeping) without staking.
This plant is fairly easy to root so you really don't need to graft the plant. Rooting cuttings of the plant will be much easier than trying to graft the plant (unless you're a skilled grafter). I took cuttings of my 'Jubilee' in early January and hope to have them rooted by April. Good luck, Mike
Grafting is complicated by the difficulty of finding the proper rootstock. There was talk of grafting onto common arborivitae, like smaragd cedars. This will work, temporarily. I was going to do this but was cautioned by another member of this list, who is a professional propagator (thanks again, you know who you are!). Her nursery uses, I believe, thuja orientalis (even this is not thuja anymore, I think, sheesh) from seed as the stock. This seems to form a permanently compatible union. However, the orientalis is not the easiest thing to grow, so the grafting remains quite problematic. On the other hand, as others have mentioned, the pendula does root easily. My cuttings have been slow to grow on, tho. I think staking early on might help with this, as mine are just forming low spreading bushes without any training up. (So many plants, so little time!)
