Mendham, New Jersey

A living legacy of Japanese Umbrella Pines, grown one ring at a time.

Home to what's believed to be the largest private grove of Sciadopitys verticillata in North America — a prehistoric conifer, planted more than 25 years ago, now available as mature specimens for gardens, estates, and institutions.

See Specimen Sizes Read Our Story

Welcome

Tucked into the hills of Mendham, New Jersey, Cherry Lane Family Farm is home to one of the most remarkable conifer collections in North America — a mature grove of Japanese Umbrella Pines, widely regarded as the largest private collection of the species on the continent. Alongside this signature collection, we grow a curated range of ornamental trees and shrubs for home gardens, estates, and landscape projects of every scale.

We're a family-run farm, and we treat every tree that way — with patience, attention, and a long view. Some of ours have been growing for over 25 years.

Top-down view of a whorl of Japanese Umbrella Pine needles radiating from a central point — Whorled needles: the Umbrella Pine's signature detail

A dense stand of mature Japanese Umbrella Pines in the center grove, their tapered green crowns rising against a cloudy sky — The center grove

Close-up of an Umbrella Pine trunk showing its thick, reddish-brown, stringy exfoliating bark — Bark detail on a mature specimen

Looking across the farm pond from a new wooden dock, with rippled water and green trees along both banks — The pond, seen from the dock

Our Story

Twenty-five years, one grove.

1990s

A young Yale School of Forestry graduate named Lorens Fasano came across 550 Japanese Umbrella Pine saplings at a nursery that was closing down. Recognizing how rare the species was, he bought them all and hand-planted them on his family's property here in Mendham.

Decades of growth

Lorens's saplings matured into what's believed to be the largest private grove of this species in North America — with specimens from the collection already gracing the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Hudson Yards, Vassar College, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Today

Cherry Lane Family Farm carries that legacy forward. We took over stewardship of this extraordinary collection and are growing it into a working farm — offering mature specimens from the original grove, alongside a wider range of ornamental trees and shrubs, to homeowners, landscapers, and institutions alike.

Japanese Umbrella Pines aren't actually pines at all — they're a living fossil, the only remaining member of the family Sciadopityaceae, with a lineage dating back roughly 230 million years, before the dinosaurs. Known in Japan as kôyamaki, it's regarded as one of the sacred "Five Trees of Kiso."

The Collection

The Japanese Umbrella Pine

Our Umbrella Pines are the heart of the farm, and mature specimens of this scale are rarely available anywhere in the trade. Because of their rarity, scale, and sculptural form, they're especially sought after by botanical gardens, colleges and universities, landscape architects, and collectors looking for a true specimen tree with instant landscape impact.

Japanese Umbrella Pine

Sciadopitys verticillata · Kôyamaki

Origin: Two isolated regions of Japan (Shikoku and Honshu)
Classification: Not a true pine — a prehistoric conifer, roughly 230 million years old
Hardiness: USDA Zones 5–7
Growth rate: Extremely slow — often a century to reach full height
Mature size: Typically 25–40 ft tall, 15–20 ft spread
Foliage: Whorls of 20–30 soft, waxy, deep emerald needles
Bark: Thick, reddish-orange, stringy bark that peels in long strips
Sun / soil: Full sun to partial shade; moist, acidic, well-drained; pest- and deer-resistant

Why Mature Specimens Command a Premium

Across the country, demand for fully grown, established trees has surged as landscape owners increasingly favor immediate, dramatic impact over the decades of patience traditional planting requires. Specimen trees are now sought after the way fine art or rare furniture might be — valued not just for their size, but for the years of careful cultivation embedded in every ring.

This isn't new — grand estates have coveted mature trees since the great English gardens of the 18th century, accelerating again in the Gilded Age. Because an Umbrella Pine takes decades to reach a stately size, and our grove has been growing since the 1990s, each specimen represents cultivation time that simply cannot be shortcut.

Specimen Sizes & Pricing

Find the right specimen for your project

Select Specimen

Height: 8'–10'
Caliper: 3"–4"
Age: ~25 years

Estate Grade

Height: 10'–12'
Caliper: 4"–5"
Age: 25+ years

Premier Landmark

Height: 12'–15'+
Caliper: 5"+
Age: 25+ years

Pricing varies by size, caliper, and current availability. We're happy to quote professional Balled & Burlapped digging, or coordinate with your own landscape contractor. Serious buyers are welcome to schedule a visit and tag specific trees on-site.

Inquire for Pricing

Provenance

Where our trees have gone

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Hudson Yards Vassar College Carnegie Mellon University

What Else We Grow

In addition to our signature Umbrella Pines, Cherry Lane Family Farm offers a select range of ornamental conifers and shrubs for home gardens, estates, and landscape projects. Our northeast field is planted in rows of young boxwood. Whether you're planting a single specimen tree or sourcing for a larger installation, we can help you find the right fit.

Rows of young boxwood shrubs planted across the northeast field, with a stand of mature evergreens along the far edge — Young boxwood in the northeast field, with the grove beyond

Who We Serve

Two ways to work with us

Homeowners & Landscapers

Looking for a standout specimen tree or a well-chosen shrub for your garden? We welcome retail visitors and can help you select trees suited to your space.

Wholesale, Institutions & Landscape Architects

We work with botanical gardens, universities, municipalities, and landscape professionals sourcing rare or mature specimens for larger projects. Private walking tours are available by appointment.

A New Opportunity

Set Your Scene at Cherry Lane

Beyond the nursery business, Cherry Lane Family Farm has the kind of setting film, television, and advertising productions actively search for: a rare conifer grove found almost nowhere else in the region, a spring-fed pond with a dock, open meadows, a weathered red barn, stone gateposts, and even a vintage tree spade truck for a working-farm feel that can't be manufactured on a set. Rural, camera-ready properties within reach of New York City are consistently in short supply, and Cherry Lane sits well inside that radius.

Inquire About Filming Here

Also at Cherry Lane

Host Your Wedding in the Hayfield

Our back hayfield opens as a private, tented event space with its own separate entrance — including the option to arrive by horse-drawn carriage.

See the Wedding Venue

Brand

A Mark of Our Own

The same rings from the illustration up top, built into a working logo — because the rings already are the mark. No redesign, just the farm's own artwork, reused.

Cherry Lane Family Farm

Mendham, New Jersey

Primary mark

Icon only, for small or single-color use

Patch concept A — single circle

Patch concept B — two-piece, with nameplate

Farm Merch

A first look at the mark on product — concepts for now, with real merch to follow.

A sticky name tag reading Hello my name is Coni Fur, a pun on conifer

"Coni Fur" Name Tag Sticker

A little inside joke for conifer lovers — peel-and-stick, just for fun.

A white t-shirt, back view, with the rings mark printed in orange, green, and gold, reading 25+ years and est. 1990s

Farm T-Shirt — Back

Full rings mark with the farm's story line.

An antique blue hay rake with cream-colored spoked wheels stands on a mulched patch of lawn in front of a wooded hillside, with a small sign reading Find awe in nature — An antique hay rake on the lawn at Cherry Lane

A note from the farm

Find awe in nature.

On the lawn at Cherry Lane, an antique hay rake stands in front of the woods, painted blue and carrying a small sign with a simple invitation. It's one we take seriously.

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt, in his book The Anxious Generation, counts finding awe in nature among six spiritual practices that help people look up from their screens and feel part of something larger than themselves, and he encourages making a deliberate effort to seek out beautiful natural places. A grove whose species goes back some 230 million years is a good place to start.

Come walk it with us.

Idea credited to Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (Penguin Press, 2024), chapter 8, "Spiritual Elevation and Degradation."