Big cypress

c54fun

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Got good news today that my two big cypress are being shipped. Cant wait to see them. One is a bald and the other a pond. Been wanting something big to work with. For some reason I still really like my little bald cypress. Its been a lot of fun so far.
I finally bought a small wagon to help move the big trees around. My guava about killed me last time. Will get a lot of use out of it.
The pond has never been styled and the bald has been chopped grown out and wired. Needs carved, thinned, jined and who knows what else. Probable best to just put them in there spot, get them as healthy as I can and this winter do some work.
Couple of pictures of the trees ready to ship.
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Giga

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I could lift it, one handed, on one foot, on a unicycle.


In the snow....




Yeah big tree are awesome but also A double edge sword. I have some large tree's and my blad cypress rarly makes it in the shop because it's 4' tall and 80ish lbs - akward to carry with one person.
 

BillsBayou

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Yeah big tree are awesome but also A double edge sword. I have some large tree's and my blad cypress rarly makes it in the shop because it's 4' tall and 80ish lbs - akward to carry with one person.

It's all in the lumber and the leverage. I use 6-foot long 2"x8" planks and 2'x3' plywood. It's tricky, but doable. The planks can be used to lift the pots and the plywood is used to allow the pots to slide around the benches.

And yes, I do this rarely because it's a bitch.
 

BillsBayou

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I forgot to mention, I use a Harbor Freight hydraulic lift cart and a Gorilla garden cart from Lowes. Moving the lift cart across the grass is a real pain, but it makes it easy (with the use of plywood) to slide the big pot off my concrete bench and down to he garden cart.

If you want to combine the utility of the lift cart with the portability of a fat-tire garden cart, and you have $750, check out Meco bonsai. He usually hits the conventions. Here's a link to the cart. It's VERY nice.

Or I could figure out a way to remove the wheels from THIS and replace and weld them on to THIS (which I happen to already own). Then I'd have my own hydro cart.

Hmmm.... maybe I could pay a welder to do it for me? But no, if I do it myself, I'd have an excuse to buy a welder. Whoever dies with the most toys wins.
 

c54fun

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I forgot to mention, I use a Harbor Freight hydraulic lift cart and a Gorilla garden cart from Lowes. Moving the lift cart across the grass is a real pain, but it makes it easy (with the use of plywood) to slide the big pot off my concrete bench and down to he garden cart.

If you want to combine the utility of the lift cart with the portability of a fat-tire garden cart, and you have $750, check out Meco bonsai. He usually hits the conventions. Here's a link to the cart. It's VERY nice.

Or I could figure out a way to remove the wheels from THIS and replace and weld them on to THIS (which I happen to already own). Then I'd have my own hydro cart.

Hmmm.... maybe I could pay a welder to do it for me? But no, if I do it myself, I'd have an excuse to buy a welder. Whoever dies with the most toys wins.

Both utility lift cart is fantastic looking. I bet the Harbor freight one would weld to my cart I bought. Great... now another thing I want. I did buy this little wagon to move these trees from the driveway back to the stands. I've only bought one one big tree and it sucked moving it without a cart. The small cart I bought should move one tree at a time ok. May or may not need the lift. The bald is big and probably heavy and the pond should be less. Just need to get it on the cart and off the cart to a low stand.

My trees should have been here yesterday. No reason why they did not show up. Said they are loaded and will be here today. Cant wait to see them let alone eventually work on them. @BillsBayou I would greatly appreciate any advice from you about these trees. I know they grow well here and also know somewhat about the timing to work on them but will be asking lots of questions to be sure I get it right. I'm really wanting the pond to look very nice. The bald has plenty of material and is already wired so it wont take as much but the pond has a lot of character and they just look so much different from the balds. Its very old and the trunk looks great. Should make a really cool tree. Both trees have been re potted in the last year so no worries about that. 1st plan of action will be to get them in place and take lots of pictures for both me and to post on Bonsai Nut. Love looking back and seeing the progress of the trees and also sharing the photos with other nuts. Probably just leave them alone and stare at them every day to start to get an idea of what to do. Meanwhile get them healthy as I can before winter.

Cart I bought.
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c54fun

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These tree are massive. Pictures doesn't tell very good how big the trunks are plus I've never had trees this big.

The bald is wall to wall nebari in a 24 inch pot. Tree is WAY to big. 3 feet needs cut off. Plenty to work with though. Color doesn't look good on it. I should be able to get it back in shape. The base of the bald is unreal. Also pretty much hidden by branches very low. I thought the original chop was 2 or 3 feet lower than it is. The chop is probable 5 feet high. I wanted a tree to chop, carve and style and everything is there to do this.

Love the pond. Trunk is massive. Tons of taper. Color looks great. Not sure what the front will be. The side with the big hole leans towards the viewer?? Seems odd but I like the hole or whatever you call it. Angle could be changed in the pot to help some. Branches are very flexible. Many different ways to style this tree.

The little cart works perfect. I ordered another and will leave each tree in the cart. Perfect fit and height. Simple to put in place and roll out when you need to.

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Tieball

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Fabulous trunk bases!....Seriously fabulous!
Looks like what my mind visualizes deep inside the Amazon forest....waiting for an Anaconda to slither out hissing....
Nice purchase.
 

c54fun

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Fabulous trunk bases!....Seriously fabulous!
Looks like what my mind visualizes deep inside the Amazon forest....waiting for an Anaconda to slither out hissing....
Nice purchase.
Thanks @Tieball I'm not a fan of the roots showing on cypress but I love this one. Its the coolest feature of the tree and its pretty much covered by branches.
 

Tieball

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Looks like it's from the Bayou deep down south...where the water level washes and erodes the soil away...leaving your roots exposed...and looking good. The big picture is that this tree, to me, moved from the quiet setting corner to the exciting center of discussion and attention.
 

c54fun

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Looks like it's from the Bayou deep down south...where the water level washes and erodes the soil away...leaving your roots exposed...and looking good. The big picture is that this tree, to me, moved from the quiet setting corner to the exciting center of discussion and attention.
Cant wait to work on them. The branches are super flexible on both trees. Want to get the balds color better. Don't like the color at all. Needs a little love is all. Going to start sketching different ways to do the top on the bald. It has plenty of branches to flat top it but the main trunk doesn't have much taper for a flat top. May need to chop and pull up one of the long branches into a leader and grow some taper into it. May also be a good candidate for a lot of carving.
 

sorce

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Whoever dies with the most toys win

Remember though....

That anything from Harbor Frieght is minus 2 points. And minus one point for everytime it has been returned.

Please....please....please.....

For the love of all things that aren't particle board, plastic, cheap, and Chinese!

Don't buy what they call a welder from Harbor Freight!

Sorce
 

sorce

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Oh...wicked base C!

Love that swoophole front!

Sorce
 

c54fun

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Now the neighbors know your insane!!:eek::eek::eek::eek::D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Massive!!!!!!!!!!!:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:
Yesterday I was on a ladder clipping some of the crap inside that was not needed and the neighbor pulled into his drive and could see me standing up higher than the fence trimming on a tree. For sure insane.
 

c54fun

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This is after cleaning up all the stray shoots and fixing some of the wired branches that were bent to fit for shipping. You can see the trunk now. Big garbled mess before.
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Tieball

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How tall is this tree? ......top of soil to top of tree.
 

Tieball

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Whoa!......that's a big tree. Now I understand the step ladder. What are you thinking for future height?......seeing as how the tree is going to quickly want to grow even more height.
 

c54fun

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Whoa!......that's a big tree. Now I understand the step ladder. What are you thinking for future height?......seeing as how the tree is going to quickly want to grow even more height.
I may end up cutting 2 or 3 feet. Cutting half the tree seems a lot but by the time you pull up a new leader I will get some more height from that. No matter what with the base it has it needs to be a bigger tree. I don't like it this big at all but I mainly wanted the trunk. Also nice to have plenty of bendable branches to choose from. I would like to keep some sort of natural cypress look instead of a Japanese cypress bonsai. I think a chop and some tasteful carving would be nice.
 
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