I really like the look as well but I never planted one because the odds of them surviving are pretty much zero. Instead I looked for other things that have the same form and I found two different types of junipers that give a tall, narrow, columnar form. I planted multiples of both and they have both thrived. The main difference between the two is that one has a darker green color “Spartan” and one has the more blue color “Sky Rocket” you see in a lot of junipers. Of the two the blue one has the most narrow shape whereas the green one is slightly wider.

Both were billed as narrow, the blue as two feet wide at maturity and the green as three feet wide although I found they get much wider than that if they are not trimme or pruned. That might be in part because the snow weighs them down and spread the branches but to keep that tight columnar form you get from an Italian Cyprus you will need to prune them and that does get to be harder as they grow taller.

Now the arborvitae, which the thuja is one, also grow in a columnar form but they get much larger, the thujas get huge. And arborvitae are wider but they do seem to hold their shape better with less work than the junipers do. I have a neighbor here in Highland that planted a hedge out of some form of arborvitae that is at least 30’ tall and very thick, it makes an excellent wind break. I’ve actually allowed some of the junipers I planted on the north side of my property to just spread their branches and get wide and they’ve made a good windbreak as well. They still have a taller and more columnar form than many of the lower spreading type junipers that are so common around here but as I said it would take some pruning to keep them as narrow as I originally hoped they would be.

I ordered them from the Musser Forests catalogue and they were maybe 8” inches tall or so when they came and I planted them. They grew rapidly however and within about 5 years were pretty tall.

So despite them not turning out as narrow as I wanted them to be without some work on my part they are the closest thing to the Italian Cyprus you are wanting that will handle a northern Utah winter, in fact the winter doesn’t phase them at all other than the snow weighing down the branches and making them spread out and lose their narrow form.