zach’s personal collection
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progressions
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Read About the Bonsai in Zach’s Collection
bald cypress
Have You Ever Defoliated A BC? Here’s How To Do It
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....
Designing A Bald Cypress Pairing – Next Step
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. ...
Repotting Mr. Van Winkle
It's been a couple of years since I repotted my big Willow oak, Quercus phellos. Last year I named him Rip Van Winkle, because he waited until May to finally bud out. (I was afraid he was R.I.P. Van Winkle.) Anyway, when I did the repotting back in 2016 I tried...
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huckleberry
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riverflat hawthorn
The Envelope May Just Be Pushed
I chose this riverflat hawthorn, Crataegus opaca, to test the potential for collecting hawthorn species in October. I know I've mentioned before that hawthorns are relatively easy to collect, with a 90% survival rate - a very consistent rate I've experienced over the...
Pushing A New Bonsai Envelope
Water-elm, Planera aquatica, is one of my big-two bonsai species along with bald cypress. I've probably worked on more water-elms than any other species, and I may very well have worked on more than anyone else in the art. I've written on more than one occasion...
Willow Oak – Final Work For 2015
I'm sure you'll remember this willow oak, Quercus phellos, that I potted earlier this year. There are a number of developmental chores I've been working on: building the apex using the grow, clip and wire process; building taper into the tree's branches in the same...
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willow oak
Oaks As Bonsai
I think we don't grow enough oaks as bonsai. As a genus, Quercus is one of the more agreeable out there. Aside from being strong as oaks (ha!), this genus features a vast number of choices suitable to pot culture. I've written before about live oak and willow oak...
New Bonsai In The Making
I love spring because there's always new material to work on. That's one great thing about bonsai: no two are exactly alike. Even though any given species has a particular growth habit, when you start building a bonsai you don't know for sure exactly where your...
Bald Cypress Work – 2016 – Part 2
As with most bonsai in development, timing is critical as you move from new collect to recovered specimen and on to initial design steps. With bald cypress, timing is perhaps more critical than with most species since it grows so vigorously once it recovers from...
we love your input
Hi Zach,
When is the next availability of Bald Cypress. I live in Michigan.
I would like to get one booked.
I am retired from the bonsai business, Aby. Sorry.
Is bald cypress Cypressbonsai20 available for sale?
so this is the 1st time in a while I’ve been to the site just showing it off and im super impressed.
Thank you, Josh!
Zach, I see you train bonsai BC in flat top style but am not sure what to picture. Is it supposed to mimic a tree that lost its conical top from wind damage or lightning? Does it look like a bald head with hair/branches growing out from the sides only? Do you have finished ones like this to show as an example?
Thanks, Danny
Danny, the so-called flat-top Bald cypress is simply an older tree that has lost most of its lower branches as it’s grown taller and older, and having reached its genetically limited height the growth in the crown spreads laterally. Check out this post to get an idea of one in training.