Bald Cypress | Bonsai South

Watch Me Wire The Big BC – It’s Progress!

by Zach Smith | Jul 1, 2018 | Bald Cypress, Care, Pruning, Styling, Wiring

Last week I defoliated this very large Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum). Not surprisingly, the tree is already showing new buds. The wiring needed to be done now!

Here’s the step by step work I did on this tree. When you defoliate any tree, it gives you the opportunity to clearly see how your design is working. This allows you to strategically prune, wire and shape the branches of your tree in order to accomplish (or sometimes change) your design plan.

Not quite enough recording time on that first video, but the work was mostly done. Here’s my final commentary.

I’d love to know what you think. Leave a comment below.

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Have You Ever Defoliated A BC? Here’s How To Do It

by Zach Smith | Jun 23, 2018 | Bald Cypress, Care

If you grow or plan to grow Bald cypress bonsai, it’s vital that you learn an indispensable development technique – defoliation. It may sound challenging at first blush, but it’s one of the easiest and most beneficial techniques you’ll ever use in growing bonsai.

Here’s a short video showing the defoliation of a very large Bald cypress. It’s a technique I highly recommend for the development of the species. Let me know what you think! Leave a comment below.

Designing A Bald Cypress Pairing – Next Step

by Zach Smith | May 12, 2018 | Bald Cypress, Care, Styling, Wiring

In early March I created this bald cypress pairing. On the 31st here’s what it looked like. Not so impressive. But from humble beginnings….

A month later, the trees had responded like bald cypress responds, and I was able to get the initial styling mostly done. Looking much better!

Here’s the first video segment on today’s work. The new shoots, most of which are in the apex of the tree, are still quite tender but most are able to be wired and positioned.

And here’s the remainder of today’s work. The initial styling of any bonsai is perhaps the most critical part of making the ultimate design. You may not end up in the same spot you envisioned when starting out, but most of the time you end up pretty close. With this BC pair, I have no trouble at all seeing the end-result.

Spring Work – Potting And Repotting

by Zach Smith | Mar 4, 2018 | Bald Cypress, Care, Chinese Elm, Elms, Potting, Pruning, Soil

The beat goes on. As I mentioned yesterday, spring is the time when you need to do all sorts of things all at once. One of those things is potting. Another, related, is repotting. Here are today’s subjects.

Here’s my Chinese elm, Ulmus parvifolia, that you can learn more about on its Progression page. Last fall, I decided that this view of the tree didn’t really show it off to best advantage. I liked the one below better.

Better trunk movement, better tapering transition, all in all just better. Today it was time to turn it in the pot.

I took off only enough root to fit the tree in the pot, including a small amount at the bottom of the root mass to allow for a little drainage layer (till the roots grow down into that area, of course). The tree won’t mind this at all.

Tied down and filled in with fresh soil. As you may be able to see, the tree is leafing out. I prefer to do my work on Chinese elms when the buds are swelling, not in the dead of winter. I also lift them from the growing beds at this time.

Here’s a two-tree Bald cypress planting I got from a fellow grower last fall. I figured it would make a nice composition more or less as-is. Today it was time to make this happen.

I happened to have this antique Tokoname tray on the shelf, and I thought it would complement these two trees very well.

A good bit of root had to go, in order to fit these two trees into the tray properly. I also took off a lot of the upper parts of the trees. That should help balance things.

Here they are, placed in the tray.

And the tray filled in with soil. These trees are already budding, and I don’t anticipate potting them will delay their growth too much. In a couple of weeks, they should be filled out pretty well.

Note:

Comments are closed. Remember to use the new Insider’s Club Form to post your questions and comments. This helps everybody learn and help and this is where I am now posting responses to your inquires and comments. (You’ll find the forum by scrolling up; it’s on your right.)

For All You Timid Root-Pruners Out There

by Zach Smith | Feb 9, 2018 | Bald Cypress, Care, Pruning

I regularly cause a lot of anxiety by how drastically I root-prune newly collected trees. To be sure, it takes some courage to start really chopping on your deciduous trees the way they need to be, but once you figure out they don’t mind it does get a lot easier.

This Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) a client bought last fall, which surprised me the other day by starting to pop buds all over, is actually a different case in that it’s been container grown to size. My bonsai friend and sometimes supplier Bill grew this tree from a young seedling, developing the trunk by the grow and chop method. He did an awesome job of creating taper.

But the roots, man oh man, he actually got them to buttress in the growing container by keeping the tree’s roots submerged in water all the time. It’s a technique I plan to try myself. Notice how deep the growing container is. And notice how the roots have burst through the container. When I got it from Bill, he had the whole tree stuck in a 5-gallon bucket. I knew I had a root-pruning job ahead of me. With the tree popping buds, I had to take care of this today.

The first step was easy – just saw off what won’t be needed. I went ahead and took it down to about how deep the eventual bonsai container will be. There’s no point in leaving thick roots that will have to be chopped again down the road.

The rest of the container removed.

The roots have conformed themselves to the shape of the container.

Container-grown trees always produce coiling roots; in fact, you’ll see many container-grown trees, and Bald cypress is one of the worst, that have really horrible-looking roots owing to this phenomenon. I believe that Bill’s technique of growing the tree in a very deep but not too wide container, and keeping it submerged, prevented this problem from happening.

Here’s the shot that is sure to make some folks cringe.

There’s just not much left of the root mass, now is there? But this is all that’s needed.

If you’ll look closely at the third photo above, you’ll notice one very interesting fact: there are no nice fresh white feeder roots. It’s not time for them to begin growing yet. BCs push foliar growth first, whether on a newly collected tree or a container-grown tree. Once the shoots start pushing, that’s when the new root growth begins. This probably won’t happen for another couple of weeks. But I’m taking advantage of the habits of the species to go ahead and do this necessary work now.

And finally, the tree in its new (temporary) home. The pot is only a 3-gallon, but it’s plenty since no further trunk thickening or taper building is required. All of the branch work can be done starting from here.

The base of this tree is 3.5″ across, 3.5″ above the soil surface. It’s chopped at 22″, and should finish at about 28-30″. The buttressing is very uncommon for a tree this size.

Let me know what you think.

And are you chopping your roots hard enough?

Want to post a comment after February 2018? Remember to use the new Insider’s Club Form to post your questions and comments. This helps everybody learn and help and this is where I am now posting responses to your inquires and comments. (You’ll find the forum by scrolling up; it’s on your right.)

I’m Seeing BC Buds!

by Zach Smith | Feb 8, 2018 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting

This winter has been pretty awful. In addition to being colder than usual, it’s also been wetter than usual. That does not make for a pleasant time.

Just over the past few days we’ve seen temperatures moderate a bit – and by that I mean it gets into the 60s during the day. Everything’s still ugly, but if temps continue like this (and that’s the prediction) then certain species are likely to start swelling their buds. The other day I noticed buds on an American elm I collected last month. Bald cypress is absolutely one of the best at this. I went out this evening to take a look at everything, and one of my cypresses from last fall I’m holding for a client has buds that are about to open! These trees all come from south of here, and as I’ve mentioned before they often exhibit “memory” of where they came from. What this means is, my very large cypresses in the yard that I planted 18 years ago will sit there for another month with no activity at all. The collected trees from down south will be out by then and making shoots. Very exciting!

In the meantime, here’s a fun thing to do. Help me figure out the best front for this large BC.

Option #1

When I pot these specimens in plastic tubs, I always pick what I think is the best front. Usually I get it right. But not always. In this case, you can’t argue with the nice movement in the trunk and the buttressing roots. This is a really nicely buttressed BC, with great taper and character.

Option #2

When I was watering this evening, this view of the tree caught my eye. It is more or less from the left rear corner of the tub as seen in photo 1. Once again there’s beautiful buttressing and flaring. In addition, this view has a broader surface spread than the first one. I’m thinking that it makes a bigger visual impression this way. So now I’m torn.

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