by Zach Smith | Feb 2, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Care, Potting, Styling, Wiring
A couple of years ago I planted some Bald cypress seeds in a cutoff 3-gallon nursery pot. I did nothing to them, just let them do their thing. I’ve had my eye on the dominant tree for a while now, figuring I’d split up the group and plant them separately into their own pots or the ground. But today I wondered if maybe I didn’t have a BC forest ready-made for me. After all, there are seven trees to start with and they’re actually spaced apart pretty nicely. You know how I love to slip-pot trees.
I’m sure you’ve already figured out that this BC planting is set apart by how tall the trees are. I love the way a tall-tree cypress forest looks, and this one is exaggerated beyond what you’d normally do on purpose. The tallest tree did need some trimming, so that was a quick chore (I’ll probably need to do more during the growing season).
The best way to really show off the height of this forest is to plant it in an undersized pot. I had this lovely Ashley Keller round sitting on the bench, and it’s just the ticket.
Here’s the group unpotted and with most of the soil removed. The roots are nicely grown together. They’ll only need some light trimming.
The trees are placed. They’ll need some wire to make them go in exactly the right spots.
And here we are, with the pot filled with soil and the trees wired and positioned. I think this makes a nice composition. The trees are budding now, so they should be in leaf in another couple of weeks. Let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | Feb 1, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Blueberry, Care, Flowering, Hawthorn, Mulberry
Each winter there are certain specimens of certain species that decide to wake early from dormancy. It just takes a little warmth and sunshine, and they start popping buds. We just finished up Bald cypress collecting season last week. This one was collected two weeks ago and it, along with some others we harvested, is already pushing buds. It looks like we’re heading into a slight warming trend over the next couple of weeks, so this tree should have obvious foliage on it by the end of February.
Here’s a Red mulberry, Morus rubra, that I’ve had on the bench for over a year. It was in an oversized pot, and had thrown branches that were six feet in length. Starting this year it gets to be a shohin bonsai. Last week I did a number of it, top and bottom, and it fit nicely with all that coaxing into this Chuck Iker round. I think it’s going to make a great composition. You probably can’t see in this photo, but it’s got lots of green buds that are swelling and should be open in a week. Styling it is going to be a lot of fun.
This Parsley hawthorn was lifted from our field growing area on December 14th of last year. Parsley haw is one of the first species to leaf out each year, and this tendency is enhanced if you do root work on them. I cut back all of the roots hard on this specimen, and it’s doing just what I expected. Judging by the buds I see, I’ll be able to create a nice branch structure in about six weeks.
This Huckleberry was also lifted on December 14th. It’s another species that comes out very early, whether you do root work on them or not. I have some on the bench in bloom, and most are just starting to leaf out. I don’t know about you, but I’m really getting excited about the 2020 growing season. I still have some collecting to do, which will probably extend into early March, but it looks like an early spring is headed our way.
by Zach Smith | Jan 26, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting
Yesterday we wrapped up Bald cypress collecting season. The winter collecting season (this far south) is driven largely by the weather. Ours has seen some warm spells, and despite a few mornings near freezing it’s just not been enough to keep these trees from starting to push buds. I prefer not to risk collecting right after budburst, so the safest course is to call the season done. Fortunately, we got a lot of very nice trees and I’m happy to say that some of them are already pushing buds. So far so good!
This specimen caught my eye because of the nice twist in the trunk that highlights the deep flute in front of the tree.
Here it is in the pot. This specimen is more or less prototypical of what a natural-looking Bald cypress should be: flaring base with good buttressing roots, great trunk taper and character, and usually just a little movement to make for a good start. Since BC’s bud so prolifically, it’s really easy to make a great bonsai structure in a relatively short timeframe.
I got two surprises this trip. Here’s the first one, and you could call it a “small big surprise.” Notice the nice fluting of the trunk on this BC. How big a tree would you say it is? BC trunks don’t typically get the nice fluting until they’re at least 3″ across near the base. This one is just over 2″ at the soil! In fact, it’s the smallest cypress specimen I can ever recall seeing with trunk fluting. A really big surprise!
Here’s the other surprise for the day, and it’s actually a big surprise. As I cleaned up the tree, I discovered a very large hunk of wood where there’s normally just a taproot (occasionally a double-tap). At first I thought it was just caught up in the root base, but as I continued to work on it I realized it was part of the tree! But still, I couldn’t explain how it came to pass.
If you look closely you can see some dark wood that rests between two of the buttressing roots. This wood appears to be the remnant of a one-time BC trunk that died. I can say that it’s very solid! So the plan will be to drill a hole down through this hunk of wood, since it doesn’t currently drain, then treat the dead wood with lime sulfur.
Here’s the tree, potted. The trunk is chopped at 25″, so the taper is just superb. And of course you can’t top that trunk character. I’ll need to carve the sawn part of the remnant trunk you saw in the previous photo, but that should help to really make this an unusual specimen for the Bonsai South collection.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on these specimens.
by Zach Smith | Jan 20, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting
Today was BC collecting trip #4 for 2020. As usual, we had great luck. This may be my favorite specimen from today’s group. Some BC’s just have that flat-top look, and this is one of them. The base is 4″ and it’s chopped at 30″, which will make a tall and elegant specimen. The flaring root base is outstanding, and the fluting is good too.
It’s easier in this photo to see just how nice this tree is. If someone doesn’t make a flat-top bonsai out of it, I plan to do so myself.
This is the most unusual specimen we got today. It has an interesting root off to the left, what you might call a “flying buttress.” It will work best in a bonsai pot if you can see through the base, so the tree was prepped with that in mind.
You can’t see the flying buttress here, but that’s how we pot ’em.
This is the largest specimen we brought home today, with a trunk base of 4.5″. The photo doesn’t do the fluting justice. It will make a fine upright classic BC bonsai.
Here’s another upright specimen with great fluting up the trunk. The base is 4″. Some of my BC’s from prior years are pushing buds now, and even though we have a couple of cold nights ahead of us I don’t think these trees will hold back much longer. They were collected a good bit farther south than we are, and they do tend to remember where they come from. Let me know what you think of these cypresses.
by Zach Smith | Jan 18, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Care, Collecting, Potting
Today was our third Bald cypress collecting trip for 2020. The goal was to bring home somewhat smaller material, mostly in the 3″ +/- trunk size. We were definitely successful.
This is a good example of our haul. The base is terrific, and you can’t argue with the taper and movement of the trunk.
In the pot and buried deep.
This is a very cool specimen. I’m not sure if that secondary trunk can be part of the design, but I’m leaving it for whoever buys the tree (or myself if it ends up hanging around for a while). Regardless, the base is very impressive and I love the turn in the trunk. And of course, you just can’t ask for better taper.
This one caught my eye. It’s not something you’d make on purpose, but it was out there just growing away and I’m thinking it’s bound to make a unique bonsai. The trunk isn’t huge, just 2.5″ across the base, but it packs a lot of character.
Once again, here’s one that caught my eye. That root you see at the right is not a knee, but it packs so much interest and character I couldn’t not bring it home. There’s a very nice bonsai in this tree.
It still looks great, even buried deep. But once that root gets exposed again in a bonsai pot, this tree will really impress.
Let me know what you think.
by Zach Smith | Jan 12, 2020 | Bald Cypress, Collecting, Potting, Pruning
Our second BC collected trip for 2020 happened yesterday. As often happens, the weather did not cooperate. On the plus side, the rain was not Noah-worthy so we plowed through and got the job done. If you’re into big classically styled Bald cypress bonsai, this is the sort of specimen you’re after. Beautiful flaring, buttressed base, great trunk taper, chopped at just the right spot to grow out and finish up around 40″. This one is just about a perfect formal upright, which for the trees I collect is very unusual.
Here it is in the pot, shown from what should be the best front. The root base is buried, of course, to keep the roots from drying out.
Here’s another one the same size (5″ trunk), but more along the lines of what I usually find. This one will make a superb informal upright BC bonsai of the classic pyramidal style.
And in the pot. I love the fluting of the trunks of these trees, don’t you?
Here’s an unusual specimen. The trunk is the same size as the ones above, about 5″ across (that’s measured up the trunk about 5″ above the soil level once it’s potted), but I ended up chopping it lower because the trunk lost taper above what you see as the chop point. That means this tree will ending making a “stouter” bonsai when all is said and done. The two trees above are chopped at 26″; this one at 19″.
Here it is in its training home.
This is the most unusual specimen I brought home this trip. The trunk is not all that thick, but the flare at the base is just massive and in the final potting of the tree I plan to expose most of it. I’m confident it will make quite a statement!
All tucked in and waiting for the weather to warm up. If we get mild enough temperatures, I expect to see budding on these trees in early to mid-February. At that point or soon thereafter we should know who made it and who didn’t. Let me know what you think of our latest haul.
