by Zach Smith | Feb 14, 2015 | Bald Cypress, Care, Potting, Soil
I collected more bald cypress today. As I suspected would happen, many are budding out. This shouldn’t present any problem with their surviving, but it certainly will delay their rebudding. Still, how can you say no to really nice bald cypress?
Here’s one of the larger ones I collected, sporting a 4″ trunk. I chopped it at 26″. Looks like a nice formal upright.
You may notice that this tree has a lot of fibrous roots. Pretty much all of the ones I got today were like this. It’s a good thing, since it improves the likelihood of survival; but it presents a challenge when it comes time to pot up the tree. I typically use a regular nursery mix when potting up new collects, and this mix is usually not dry. This makes it a bit hard to work in between all those roots – but it has to be done.
Here’s another of the larger specimens from today. I really like the turn of the trunk on this one, as the taper is outstanding. 4″ trunk, chopped at 22″. Either an informal upright or flat-top style will work.
This one had really great fibrous roots, great radial roots (as with the others) and a little buttressing to boot. Nice on a smaller specimen. The fibrous roots were good enough to encourage me to go ahead and pot it into this nice Chuck Iker round. How about the movement of the trunk and the taper?
For reference, this cypress has a 2.5″ trunk and is 21.5″ to the chop. And I know you’re curious about that long branch sticking out in front. This tree was budding out when I collected it, so I’ll use the branch to gauge when the tree is starting to move again.
by Zach Smith | Feb 13, 2015 | Bald Cypress, Care
You’ve seen this cypress before. I collected it about a year ago, about 120 miles south of where I am. At the time of collection, it and the other surrounding cypresses had already leafed out in their fresh pre-spring foliage. It got chopped back, along with the others, and took the better part of eight weeks to come back out. Then it grew like crazy in this Byron Myrick pot, allowing me to get a big head-start on its training (which will go quickly, regardless). You can see a classic flat-top in the making.
This winter has been more or less normal. We’ve had probably 15 freezing nights, nothing super cold but cold enough to qualify as a Southern winter. Aside from a couple of privets and of course the crabapple seedlings I have, nothing is anywhere close to budding out … except for the bald cypresses I collected 120 miles south of here in February of 2014. This tree is one of them. I have some others remaining from that area, and all but two are showing tons of buds on the verge of breaking. Yet at the same time, the cypresses I have that have been grown from seed here or collected closer to home are showing zero signs of budding. So that prompts the question: Do trees remember? What is it about these trees that makes them want to bud out weeks before others of the same species? I don’t have an answer. If there’s anyone out there who’s a botanist or is otherwise knowledgeable about this phenomenon, I’d love to hear from you.
Of course there’s a limit to how far north this “budding memory” would present itself, but I think it’s a really fascinating thing to observe. I do have to be mindful of whatever remaining cold weather we have – we’re getting the standard Valentine’s Day freeze – but barring really frigid weather these trees will have a nice head start on their more Northerly brothers.
I expect to be offering this tree for sale sometime around June. Its development will be much farther along at that time. You can see the nice surface rootage and taper, and I think the lichens on the trunk give this tree superb character. I’d say it’ll be showable in about two years.
by Zach Smith | Jan 31, 2015 | Bald Cypress, Care, Potting
Today was a bald cypress collecting day. The weather was perfect, ice on the windshield when I left but warming to near 60 degrees by the time the field work was done. There’s nothing like collecting trees and not working up a sweat (or getting soaked or freezing).
Here are a few of the new pieces with the root washing mostly done, awaiting final trimming and potting. To give you an idea of scale, the center tree has a 3″ trunk above the root crown and is 22″ to the chop. It had good enough fibrous roots that I direct-potted it into a nice Byron Myrick oval. I’ll try to post a photo of it tomorrow.
I got some very nice material today, and hopefully all of it will survive. My success rate has been about 80% in the past few years, so that bodes well. I should know in about eight weeks.
Look for new cypress specimens for sale by late April.
Update 2/1: here’s the middle tree potted up. I love the graceful movement of the trunk. My plan for this one is a so-called “young tree” style, with the traditional first branch-second branch-back branch design. For those of you who have worked with bald cypress before, you know that the species produces trunk buds more prolifically than most. This usually gives us free reign when it comes to selecting new branches. By May I should be wiring new shoots. I’ll post an update this summer.
The final shot is from the back of the tree, so you can see all of the flaring roots and buttressing. This one is awesome, more so because the trunk diameter is only 3″ above the root crown. Usually it takes a good while, and more heft, for a bald cypress to develop a good buttress. My landscape specimens I grew from seed started 15 years ago are just now doing this, and they have 8″ trunks.
Growing conditions seem to govern this part of the development of a bald cypress. I always collect specimens growing in shallow water, and this along with crowding of other trees apparently produces more compact growth and the tendency to put on flaring roots. These flaring roots, as they grow in size, create the buttressing we prize so much.
If you’ve never grown bald cypress, it’s definitely a species you’ll want to add to your collection. They’re easy to grow and train, as long as you know how to develop the crown. I’ll be posting some information on that in the coming weeks.
by Zach Smith | Jan 1, 2015 | Bald Cypress, Care, Potting
I collected this bald cypress in February of 2014. When collecting cypress, there’s one indispensable feature of any specimen being considered: a good flared base with buttressing roots. Leaving aside any other necessary features of your tree and the one other iconic feature of the species – the unique knees, which we rarely find in the collected specimen – bald cypress is known for the appearance of its base. When you grow the species from seed, you’ll find that it spends some years growing more or less like a pole. The trunk is straight-sided, plunging into the soil. It looks like any other species in that respect. Then, about 15 years later, the flaring base begins developing along with the buttressing roots.
So with this specimen, it possessed the necessary flaring and buttressing roots and therefore was a definite candidate for collecting. Once back at the nursery, all of the native soil was washed from the roots prior to potting. I used a good general purpose bonsai mix, a combination of Turface and decomposed pine bark, and made sure I buried the flaring roots sufficiently to ensure they didn’t dry out. The root zone of every tree we maintain, no matter how shallow the pot, dries out from top down. While this phenomenon is also present in nature, it’s mitigated by the ability of a tree to send feeder roots far afield in search of moisture. In the compact environment of a bonsai pot, drying out is an ever-present danger to your trees. This is also true for specimens in nursery training containers, though the danger is mitigated by the typically deeper soil mass.
This tree grew well during 2014, but I’d assess its growth as about medium in strength. Part of this was probably due to the limited room I gave it. So today I decided to repot the tree into a bigger nursery container for 2015, to allow for stronger growth. This will give a specimen ready for initial styling in 2016.
In this photo I’ve removed the tree from its original nursery container and scraped away the excess soil. You can see the “water mark” where the tree was previously buried. You can also see the newly revealed flaring, buttressing roots that I had first discovered (by reaching down under the water and muck where the tree was growing and feeling around) when considering the tree for collecting.
Here’s a close-up of the buttress. 
And finally a shot from the side. The tree needs to have buttressing roots in at least three places to appear stable. This one has four. In time, when the tree goes into a bonsai pot, the entire flaring root structure will be revealed. This will be a fine bald cypress bonsai in about five years.
This tree is available at our Bald Cypress Bonsai page. It will be available for shipping in late spring, and will be shipped in its nursery container to ensure no disturbance to the roots.
by Zach Smith | Dec 7, 2014 | Bald Cypress, Care
I collected this bald cypress, Taxodium distichum, in February of 2014. This specimen and the others I collected at the same time had already budded out for spring, but I figured they’d come back fine and almost all of them did; survival rates tend to be right at 80% for me, and this time was no different. Now, this particular tree sported a good set of fibrous roots near the trunk, so I took that as an opportunity to direct-pot the specimen into a nice Byron Myrick oval I had on hand. I wired the tree into the pot, packed the soil tightly amongst the roots, and waited the two months until spring came to my climate zone.
I had planned to go with the flat-top style from the beginning, considering the nice gradual curve in the trunk and the taper. This is the sort of bonsai that can be made in just a few years, owing to the rapid growth of bald cypress especially in the apex. The species is powerfully apically dominant.
Thanks to the luxurious foliage of bald cypress, you can have a nice looking tree almost from the start. During winter, of course, the state of development becomes more apparent. At the same time, however, rapid growth for this species helps you build ramification very quickly.
My first task next year will be to pull the tree from its pot and do some root trimming. I noticed when moving the tree to photograph it that a root had grown through one of the drainage holes. This tells me the roots are most likely crowded, and that means by the end of the 2015 growing season they’ll be past time for pruning. I need to be able to maintain the health of the tree while continuing to develop it, and the first order of business in maintaining the health of your tree is to take care of the root zone. It’s the easiest part of any bonsai to overlook, since you can’t readily see it.
The trunk base of this tree is 3” above the root crown, and it stands about 28” from the soil surface.
by Zach Smith | Nov 22, 2014 | Bald Cypress
Bald cypress is the King of American Bonsai. Everyone should have at least one bald cypress bonsai in their collection. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro, bald cypress has all the features you could want in a species for bonsai training.
Few tree species grow with the vigor of bald cypress. They produce an excess of trunk buds, which makes selecting branches very easy. From collected trunk to a specimen worthy of being shown is usually only a 3-5 year project. With a little guidance – we’re always here for you – your bald cypress bonsai will impress in no time.
We’re pleased to offer wonderful collected bald cypress specimens. These trees are selected for some specific characteristics, which are:
- Flaring, buttressed base
- Trunk movement
- Trunk character
- Taper from the base to the trunk chop, typically 20-26″ from the soil surface when potted; the tree should have a trunk diameter at the chop of one-half or less the basal diameter in order to produce the correct visual aspect
When you start off with these characteristics, it’s a sure bet that a fine bald cypress bonsai will result. Remember my guiding principle, “better material means better bonsai.” If I can start you off with a great piece of material, I figure you’ll be hard pressed to go wrong.
But don’t worry if you don’t yet have the confidence of an old hand. I’m always available for advice, and if you find yourself needing closer guidance then by all means schedule a one-on-one bald cypress bonsai training session. If you have your own cypress and need some over-the-phone input, we can schedule a time to talk.
So, what do you think of this Bald cypress?
You can tell it hasn’t been in training long, but would you believe only three months when the photo was taken?
I collected this specimen in February of 2014. It was just a trunk. The base measures 3″ above the root crown, and the trunk diameter is 1.5″ at the chop, which is 22″ from the soil surface. The trunk has nice movement and character, and the base is flared with a good nebari. I think that just about checks all the boxes for a nice bald cypress bonsai.
The style is, of course, the famous flat-top typical of the mature cypress in nature. It was “invented” by the late, great Vaughn Banting and has become very popular.
Please tell me what you think.
Leave a comment or question below, or just email me. I always respond right away.
