Advice on Boulevard Cypress

[nicolás]

Hi!

I’m new to this forum and to bonsai in general. I hope to learn much from this forum! I’ve had a little olive tree bonsai for nearly three years and a handful of Delonix Regia and Jacaranda Mimosifolia still growing from seeds, but since the pandemic I’ve been reading and watching lots of videos (certainly therapeutic). Since my trees are still too young I feel like getting my hands a bit dirtier using stock from nurseries and trees that are certainly ready for pruning and training.

I’ve only just begun with my first material bought from a nursery. I decided on a Boulevard Cypress that I liked because of the height, number of branches and the size of the trunk. Basically good material to practice making decisions, pruning and general style. This is a photo before pruning:



I decided not to go too crazy in my first take, respecting the general formal upright shape of the tree, trying just to separate the branches, balancing them, and also trying to decide on what the front is going to be. Stopped wiring in the middle.



I liked this as the front.

After sleeping on it, observing it again and feeling somewhat unsatisfied with my decisions, I started to feel uncomfortable with its height (nearly 3 feet). I decided to shorten the tree top. First I visualized it:



Then I just did it.



I feel like the apex is unsolved, but at least I like the general size and distribution a bit more, it makes the trunk seem thicker now that it is shorter.

I don’t know what to do now. Should I prune the middle branches a bit more, separating the base branches from the top branches? Should I just leave it alone for a year now, see what happens?

I like the trunk but I don’t like that there are four branches at the same height:



Should I get rid of one of them? If so, which one? (The detailed photo has the same angle as the photo above it, looking towards the chosen front). I don’t think the trunk needs to thicken quickly, so I am not interested in keeping one as a sacrificial branch.

Also, here is the back. Do you think this has more potential to be the front?



And the trunk seen from the back:



View from overhead (lower part of the photo is the chosen front):



Thank you so much for any advice you might provide and sorry for the long post.

Greetings from Costa Rica.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Ashes and embers furling toward the sky celebrating your presence, traveler. Drop your wire and concave cutters and partake in the celestial dance of “the Woody Dwarves”. The moonlight here in the Tiny Forest is quite superb.

I agree with your statement of “wanting to get your hands dirty”.. not much “work” to be done on young plants. Always need more... so you don’t “project” your young’ns to death.

I’m glad I got here first.. so I can KINDLY point your attention towards several different videos to help “hone” and sculpt your wiring skills to best suite your situation..

I STRONLY recommend the Mirai beginners series video on wiring.. It certainly helped me out...

But there’s another that I like alot.

I am unfamiliar with this certain tree, however.... I like it though.

Just mostly “dropping a welcoming branch” in your general direction.

Pleasure to make your acquaintance.

(P.S. I’ve always wanted to visit Costa Rica since I saw the skateboarding production “Around the World” as a younger “me”)

 

[hinmo24t]

nice tree. wish i was surfing at ollies point right now

 

[Forsoothe!]

Are you sure of your ID? Foliage like this...

 

[nicolás]

Are you sure of your ID? Foliage like this...
View attachment 322340

Here is a detailed photo of the foliage. What do you think? I think it is but of course I do not have much experience and they seemed kind of casual about it at the nursery so they could be wrong/imprecise. As some of you may have noticed, I live in Costa Rica and it was sold as a "Ciprés Azul", which translates in English to "Blue Cypress", but upon googling it I believe it refers to Boulevard Cypress.

 

[nicolás]

Ashes and embers furling toward the sky celebrating your presence, traveler. Drop your wire and concave cutters and partake in the celestial dance of “the Woody Dwarves”. The moonlight here in the Tiny Forest is quite superb.

I agree with your statement of “wanting to get your hands dirty”.. not much “work” to be done on young plants. Always need more... so you don’t “project” your young’ns to death.

I’m glad I got here first.. so I can KINDLY point your attention towards several different videos to help “hone” and sculpt your wiring skills to best suite your situation..

I STRONLY recommend the Mirai beginners series video on wiring.. It certainly helped me out...

But there’s another that I like alot.

I am unfamiliar with this certain tree, however.... I like it though.

Just mostly “dropping a welcoming branch” in your general direction.

Pleasure to make your acquaintance.

(P.S. I’ve always wanted to visit Costa Rica since I saw the skateboarding production “Around the World” as a younger “me”)

Thank you for your suggestion, I definitely will. Pleasure to make your acquaintance as well.

And you should definitely come to CR, once everything settles down. I do feel rather lucky to call this place my home.