Bald cypress, and general trunk chop guidelines....

[TrunkTickler]

Something similar to this but more stout.

 

[Joe Dupre']

Here's my take. Most of the BC I grow are turned into the broken top, old survivor style. For that style, I chop at 3/4 of the finished height. By the second year, I'm ready to carve the top out to similate a hollow trunk. No worries about chop healing over. MUCH faster to get a finished tree mimicking old age. This tree basically looked like this and went into our local show at 3 years from collecting.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

As to natural styles, page thru my album, from 1994 or so. Majority of trees are bald cypress, even the younger background trees. Young trees on the cypress domes can even take a broom like form. "Broken Top" is definitely a theme.

Bald Cypress Cache River, Illinois

The most popular Bonsai Community in the WORLD!

www.bonsainut.com

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Something similar to this but more stout.View attachment 317229

Any of the styles used on coast redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, can be used on bald cypress. Look at some of the great things done with redwood burls, redwood nurse logs, redwood "chunks of stumps" that have been collected. In many ways similar can be done with bald cypress. There "are no rules" in terms of what you can attempt. Its only a matter of what the natural growth habits of the tree allow.

So yes, what you propose can be done.

As to natural styles, if you use google images there are literally thousands of images on the web of mature to ancient bald cypress, they are photogenic, so there are a lot of photos available. Take a serious analytica look at them. Most of the real world examples that are at a quick glance categorized as "Flat Top" are in reality gentle wide arc domes. But there are a very wide range of other styles. many in an area will be similar, Photos from a different area will be different to other areas but similar to each other. The shaping forces of weather and climate are regional. My photos of the Cache River are mostly "Broken Top" styles. My photos from Horseshoe Lake IL are rather different, not quite as old and much less broken. When time permits I'll make another album.

You are right that the alternate habit of branching of bald cypress is desirable over the Metasequoia.

So let your imagination run.

An example of using a Bald Cypress, or in this example a Moctezuma cypress as "silly putty" styling in a manner they do not naturally grow, the attached image is a tree styled by Houston Sanders, it is Taxodium mucronatum, the Mexican or Moctezuma cypress, displayed at the 2018 Midwest Bonsai Society show at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Houston told me, he had no idea what this species should look like, so he decided to make a weeping willow like weeping tree. He got a First Place at that show, which is fairly competitive as shows go. As a weeping tree it is well done. I've seen it leafless and with leaves, it is a better weeping tree leafless, as the natural display of leaves does not weep.

So the point is not that you should make a weeping tree, but rather if you have inspiration, you do not have to be limited by what is considered "natural" for a tree.



By the way, Taxodium mucronatum is a sub-tropical tree, probably zone 8 at the coldest for winter tolerance. This tree was raised from seed, wintering in a barely above freezing polyhouse in Wisconsin. The fact it got this large, roughly 36 inches tall, dealing with Wisconsin winters is a tribute to the owner's dedication to keep it alive. This tree is significantly older than 10 years.

 

[TrunkTickler]

Wow awesome, lots to think about. Some of the coast redwoods Mirai has are incredible, hopefully, I find a worthy stump in my neck of the woods. Unfortunately/fortunately it will be a Thuja. I have lots of time to think about design so I'll probably be back on here and other threads bugging people. But at the moment I am struggling with a couple aspects of my BC. Specifically, the straight taperless section circled in red. And the first low branch circled in blue, that has a couple things going on there. First, there were at two thicker branches that once came out of that section, with some stumps left over, there is also some live foliage in that area. Second, these branches caused some beneficial change in taper in that area.

Does the area/features circled in blue hinder me in creating that smooth fluted and highly tapered look of the natural BC? Maybe it is the taperless straight part above (circled in red) that is preventing me from envisioning a more upright natural style.

Does the blue area have more talent for a style similar to this coast redwood from Mirai? or a similar multi-trunk/cathedral style.


Cheers,
Connor