Interior browning on Chamaecyparis is entirely normal and often apparent at this time of year. Tree is just shedding old foliage.

Time to be concerned is when it starts extending all along the branches or at the branch tips.

Whew, that is really good news to hear. I was a little concerned that it might be dying. The outer leaves are all nice and green. Thank you GardenGal, you've always been so helpful to me.

Hey, Ken, I'm here. :-)
I had both a green and a gold Fernspray Chamaecyparis about 15 feet tall. After dealing with the dead growth issue for many years, I yanked them out of the ground with my truck. Sounds drastic, I know, but it was time. Overcrowding was an issue, and the area needed a good shakedown anyway. Since I'm not a collector, the look of the design over rode the desire to own the plants.
I would 'tickle' the dead growth off with gloves on, and sometimes blast it off with a strong stream of water. All evergreens have some dead growth at times. Some just seem to display it more, and longer, than others. Those I avoid.
With that in mind, I purchased another type of Fernspray that was unlabeled from a local (Hyatt) nursery that was going out of business. (All too common) It seems to have finer foliage than the normal Fernspray. After a few years I pruned it to keep it small for now and to enhance the looks of it.
Gardengal, any idea as to the ID?
Mike.....watching it rain this morning.

Mike, I couldn't begin to guess :-)) Outside of the standard cultivar selection there are just too many choices of Hinoki to ID with any authority. And although I collect the little guys and have a bunch myself, I am by no means an authority!

Is the foliage more gold/yellow than green? Or is that just the light of the photo?

I like the look Mike and with all the sun exposed foliage browning should be nonexistent.

Dave

Yeah, some of the Chamaecyparis can get pretty ugly at the end of the year with the inner browning. I almost pulled my 'Fernspray Gold' from the yard the first year I had it. It was pretty ragged looking but my wife told me to keep it. I've had it 4 years now and It looks pretty cool for a golden, scragally, ferny thing. I actually like it a lot, just look somewhere else when it starts doing the inner browning thing. I also do what Mike does and knock off all the browning foliage to make it look presentable again. I guess mine looks pretty decent for growing in thick clay.

Mike, I'll make my unqualified guess and say that your plant is either 'Filicoides' or 'Filicoides Compacta' if it is simply green and ferny. If it is ferny and gold then it is 'Fernspray Gold' and if it is ferny, gold, and has slightly more refined ferny foliage then I would say that it is 'Golden Fern', a sport found on 'Fernspray Gold' which I think was a sport found on 'Filicoides'. Tee hee.

This post was edited by garen59 on Wed, Nov 12, 14 at 21:18

I seriously doubt that is 'Gold Fern' - GF is a dwarf that will only hit about 24" in 10 years. And tends to have a very dense habit compared to Mike's photo.

And that should be 'Filicoides' rather than 'Folicoides' :-)

I pruned the heck out of the original, even stripping the bark off the top to get some dead growth to make it look like a high altitude, weather beaten snag that's been hit by lighting. Isn't gardening supposed to be fun? ;-)
Now it's had a full season's growth in partial shade. It's definitely gold rather than green.
I'll attempt to get a full picture of it tomorrow. Maybe the weather will be better then. It's dark and below freezing now with a very stiff wind. My ponds are frozen over. Winter has arrived.
Mike...in the Cascade foothills.

Gardengal48, thanks for the correction on 'Filicoides'. I edited and corrected my post. =)