Here’s a Bald cypress I collected in February of 2018. It’s a good piece of material, but not a great piece of material. It is nice and big, with a trunk that measures 6.5″ across about 6″ above the soil. Taper is very good, as you can see. But the trunk, while decently fluted, isn’t a show-stopper in that department.
This side presents a bigger problem. The buttressing roots on the side are fine, but in between them is a pretty flat piece of “trunkscape.” Again, good piece of material but hardly great. Things did not get better once I potted up the tree and waited for it to bud out – namely, it took forever to bud out. It was not obviously dead, so I relocated it to a back bench and more or less forgot about it. Then, way long into the growing season, it decided to wake up. I fed it, kept it watered, but continued to ignore it.
Then came 2019, and the tree sure enough pushed more buds than it had in 2018 and did the amount of growth it could, given its location and presumably its general state of health. But I’m somewhat encouraged by it, and have “promoted” it to a sunnier bench for the 2020 season. But … it’s still not great material, even if the growth really kicks into high gear this year. What to do? (This shot is from what would presumably be the best front. We all know how the back looks, though.)
It never hurts to pull out the sketch pad, because you can try a number of different options for a tree before you assault it possibly irreparably. Given the flatness of what would be the back of the tree going by the above photo, I thought hollowing out that side could make this a very good or even great bonsai. Is it worth the risk? I think so. Time, and the chance associated with development techniques, will tell. I won’t know until sometime in spring if I’ll be able to carve this tree in 2020. I don’t want to stress a tree that’s not in full vigor. Stay tuned for updates. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you think of Plan B for this BC.
I love your Blog. Always learn a lot about Bonsai.Thank you.
Thank you for the kind words!
Nice tree. I’d wait on the carve. That can be done at any time. Built strength in 2020 and find your final apex. That might change your Plan B.
Thank you, Mike. I’m hoping for fast growth, but I probably won’t be able to attack the tree for another year.
Would it help to do the chop and leave it in the ground for a year or two? Would this allow the tree to recover from the chop faster or would it have the opposite effect when you did harvest it?
I don’t think putting the tree in the ground will help it pick up strength, not in year three. It typically takes three years for a tree planted out to really take off, so I’m thinking I’d set it back by doing so. I really do expect to see a surge of growth in 2020 – the sunnier spot should make a huge difference.
cool. Reminds me of a baobab, that drawing. They look like gigantic bonsai in a way. How does the tiny twig-like shoot at top end up that thick, and how frequently do you mess with it to speed that process up as much as possible?
Thanks, Danny
Ah, that process goes a different way. Once the tree decides to pick up strength it’ll push new shoots with some real get up and go. The twig you see is not that shoot. That’s why I mentioned the question of whether or not the tree would be strong enough to do the carving work this year. I expect actually to re-chop the trunk maybe 6″ from the top, at which point I should be able to get the strong leader I need. But first, the tree needs to show me strength.