by Zach Smith | Feb 4, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting, Pruning
Today I finally got out to where the Bald cypresses are, more specifically the smaller ones that have grown slowly giving rise to great taper and trunk movement. I brought a bunch home, and I wanted to post some photos for those of you who love the species as much as I do.
First, the flock. I focused on smaller specimens today, and it didn’t take long to grab 11 of them. What’s interesting about collecting trees, and probably Bald cypress more so than just about any other species, is that it takes much longer to prepare the tree for a container than it does to collect it. With BC in particular, they grow among the marsh grasses, so the root balls you see in this photo are merely tangles of grass roots with some BC roots mixed in. This stuff gets tight! So all in all, it was three hours’ worth of work to prepare these for containers.
Here’s one I couldn’t resist going straight to a bonsai pot with. The trunk base is 2.5″, and it’s chopped at 18″. I think this little BC is going to make a killer bonsai. The really nice thing about it is the amazing taper! This means I can create the crown of this tree in a season or two, without having to overly worry about the tapering transition.
Here’s another amazing specimen, which to my way of thinking has got flat-top written all over it. The base is 3.5″ and it’s 28″ to the chop. Is that incredible taper or what?
This was the prize of the day. Another specimen with amazing taper, but the twisting fluted trunk really makes this one special. The trunk base is 4″, and it’s only 22″ to the chop.
I may know as soon as 2-3 weeks from now if these trees survived collecting. In the meantime, I’ll be headed out soon for more.
For those of you on our
BC wish list, I’ll be communicating with you once the new collects start budding. With the warm winter we’re having, I can’t imagine these trees won’t be out before the end of March.
by Zach Smith | Feb 1, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Potting, Styling
On Sunday past I did some work on a new Bald cypress forest bonsai I started last fall. My work was limited to wiring and straightening the trunks of four of the seven trees. As I noted last fall, when building a forest bonsai the main consideration is the placement of the trunks. If you can get that right, the rest almost takes care of itself. In this post, I want to take a closer look at how this forest is composed to give you an idea of why it works.
In this first photo, we look at the starting point for every bonsai forest: the primary tree. While you may be able to make a bonsai forest without first taking the time to ensure this tree is selected and placed correctly, you’ve got a real chore ahead of you if you fail to give this part of the composition its due.
I chose to place this largest forest cypress to the right of center of the tray, at about the 1/3 position. This is not a hard and fast rule. But two things you don’t want to do are: place this tree in the dead center of the tray; and, if you place it in back of the side-to-side centerline, you have your work cut out for you when placing the remainder of your trees.
Now let’s take a look at the number two tree in the forest. I chose to place this tree more toward the center of the pot, in fact almost exactly in the center. Did I have to do this? No, there were other choices. But what’s important to understand here is that the relationship between the primary and number two trees in a forest establishes the visual route the eye takes when viewing the composition. It is by this means that the depth and perspective of the planting are constructed subconsciously.
With the first two trees of the forest in place, now we can take a closer look at the other components of one of the two sub-groups that are represented here. The photo is captioned with explanatory notes. Pay particular attention to the spacing between the trunks of the four trees. The primary and number two trees are spaced farther apart than trees number three and four. And what caps off this sub-group is the side to side spacing of the primary tree and that smallest tree way at the back of the sub-group. This one placement trick makes this forest look like it goes on a very great distance, doesn’t it?
Now we can turn our attention to the second of the sub-groups, which completes the forest. Here, in the “space” of three trees, I’ve filled in the forest both in number of trees as well as in “heft.” When you view this forest, it seems like it’s much bigger than it really is and features many more trees. Less is more, so I get the viewer’s mind to see a massive forest in only seven well-placed trees.
With the exception of the formal upright style of bonsai, there’s no more difficult challenge than the forest planting. It’s not just a bunch of trees crowded together in a shallow tray. There are rules that need to be followed, or the forest just doesn’t look like a three-dimensional creation.
This Bald cypress forest is a relatively new composition, so it obviously has a lot of growing to do. But this process can be “completed” in about three years, at which time this will be an outstanding bonsai.
Let us know what you think below.
by Zach Smith | Jan 22, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting, Pruning
It’s not at all uncommon for us to have mild winters down here. What’s really uncommon for us is to have balmy winters down here. What does balmy mean? It means temperatures in the 80s with humidity in the 90s. And not just an odd day here or there, but days on end. We had a couple of very cold nights about a week or so ago, with temps in the low 20s. We even got some freezing rain and sleet, which I wrote about. Then it warmed up. And kept on getting warmer. We’re going to cool off a bit in the next few days – powerful storms rolled through the South a couple of days ago – but all in all we’ve been consistently above-normal this winter.
A phenomenon I’ve written about before has resurfaced this year. Some of the bald cypresses I collect come from locations a hundred miles south of where I am. These trees tend to start budding out in February. Even though I’ve relocated a number of these trees northward, they tend to bud out very early as if they were still at “home.” Here’s one that’s decided to start pushing buds now.
I was surprised when I first noticed this tree budding the other day. It wouldn’t have surprised me if it had started budding in February, as if it were still farther south. But in mid-January? Wow.
I don’t have any idea what the remainder of winter will bring, temperature-wise, but if we don’t get a killing freeze this tree will continue to push buds all the way through to spring. Today I went ahead and did some trimming and a minor bit of wiring. I’m considering changing pots, and if I do it’ll have to happen fairly soon. I’ll post an update. This tree is developing good ramification now, so I’ll need to pay closer attention to how the branches and sub-branches are positioned. You can also see that I’ve left two strong shoots in the apex. Their purpose is to thicken the leader and smooth the tapering transition. I should have this chore completed in another season or two.
BC collecting season is upon us. I should have some new material coming in within the next two weeks. For those of you on our BC wish list, you should expect to hear from us when these trees start budding. More on that to come.
by Zach Smith | Jan 7, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Elms, Pines
Yesterday we got a rare bout of freezing rain and sleet, enough to put a light coating on everything. Well worth documenting.
Temps fell to the low 20’s this morning. This shouldn’t be cold enough to kill anything on my benches, especially since it’ll warm up a bit today.
by Zach Smith | Jan 1, 2017 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Elms, Hawthorn, Hornbeam, Maples, Oaks, Sweetgum
Happy New Year to all of you!
And many thanks to all of you who helped Bonsai South grow in 2016. We’ve been doing better each and every year since I relaunched the business in 2010, and I’m happy to report that 2017 looks like it will be another record-setting year.
What can you expect this coming year and into the future? The mainstay of our business is obviously larger collected specimens of various species – Bald cypress, Hawthorns, Oaks, American hornbeam, Sweetgum, Elms, and so on. We’ve also done well with field-grown specimens of not only these but also non-native species such as Chinese elm. Our plans for 2017 include adding more species along with greatly expanding our growing field; obviously we will also continue the tradition of collecting the best material we can find. We expect to roughly double 2017 production, with plans for much more in subsequent years.
I get a lot of inquiries about new material, as you can imagine. The Winter 2017 collecting season begins now, so in the coming weeks I’ll be posting photos of new collects. When spring gets here there will be lots of new material for sale.
As always, we welcome any specific requests for trees you may have. Just send me a note via our Contact page.
by Zach Smith | Nov 19, 2016 | Bald Cypress, Care, Pruning, Styling, Wiring, ZPC
It’s been a while since I updated the development of my big Bald cypress, Taxodium distichum. This is year two following collection in Winter 2015.
Here’s a photo of the tree in February of last year, just when it was pushing its first buds.
Here’s the tree after its first round of wiring and shaping for 2016, then defoliation and trimming this past July. I was thinking at the time that it might be best to turn the tree slightly.
Here’s the tree as of today, after growing out since the July defoliation. I haven’t done any pinching or pruning, rather I’ve just left the tree alone.
For all of you BC lovers out there who have requested my development guide, I’ve included this photo to show you how the callus is rolling over. Take special note of the “shelf” of wood I left at the top of the chop, where the angled cut was made early this year. The callus has to “climb” over this shelf, which slows its progress and prevents a nasty reverse taper at the point where the new leader emerges from the chop area. As early as next year I’ll carve down the shelf, and that will allow the callus to close over the chopped and carved area and eventually the wound will be completely healed.
Another thing worth noting for today is this vegetative shoot emerging from the new leader. I let it grow wild in order to thicken the base of the leader, which will ensure a smooth tapering transition.
Following removal. I’ll allow the wired leader to grow out in 2017, which will continue the process of thickening the base of the leader.
And finally, after a hard pruning. I really like the design that’s taking shape on this bald cypress. By the end of the 2017 growing season, it should be well on its way to becoming an outstanding specimen bonsai.
The trunk on this tree is 7″ across about 7″ above the soil surface. The root spread is about 16″, and it will finish at about 36″ tall.
Don’t you just love the deep fluting on this tree’s buttressing roots? When you think of the classic bald cypress form, this is what comes to mind.
I’d love to hear any comments you may have on this tree.
