BALD CYPRESS

[Toraidento]

Don't BC also have issues with die back. Especially of lower branches. Is this gonna be an issue in the future??

 

[MACH5]

I love your work Serg. You have the knowledge to make trees look fantastic. Your detail work with wiring is spot on. The ability to mold a tree into a design that is very tasteful, and believable is amazing.
I'm so new to the game I shouldn't say anything. But it's just off to me somehow. I love the Flattop look. Even the young BC triangular Pine look. Is something I find cool looking. This one is just off to me some how. Don't get me wrong, I love your work. You have years of experience, and the ability to turn out a tree like this. Is just mind blowing to me.

But these trees don't look like this in nature. These are pics I've taken here around Savannah.

Thank you for the kind words! But... what??? Can't believe you don't like this tree! GASP! JK! I do understand that they don't grow in a weeping fashion and most have the classic flat top form. I get that.

My simple answer is let's remember that bonsai is also an art form. As such, we should reserve the right to have artistic license and change the game. I least I think so. No rule says that we should not style a tree of a certain species to look like another. I strive to make a tree look natural but not neccesarily represent its species in nature. I think that is creatively constricting.

BTW, as an interesting aside note, Owen Reich told me that he has seen weeping bald cypresses in the wild!

Don't BC also have issues with die back. Especially of lower branches. Is this gonna be an issue in the future??

Don't really now about this. But I think if carefully managed, those lower branches should be fine. Time will tell.

 

[Toraidento]

It is still a beautiful tree. Wasn't this tree in last year's winter show? I think, I remember seeing it there. The work, and detail is wonderful.
It is definitely different. I'll keep looking in my adventures in the swamps around here. Maybe I can find something similar and get so pics.
I did not mean any disrespect. I really do enjoy your trees.

 

[AlainK]

let's remember that bonsai is also an art form. As such, we should reserve the right to have artistic license and change the game.

As long as the tree is pleasant to look at, that's OK. This one looks great, contrary to some other attempts by some to replace an artistis vision by innovations that just look messy...

 

[MACH5]

It is still a beautiful tree. Wasn't this tree in last year's winter show? I think, I remember seeing it there. The work, and detail is wonderful.
It is definitely different. I'll keep looking in my adventures in the swamps around here. Maybe I can find something similar and get so pics.
I did not mean any disrespect. I really do enjoy your trees.

No worries at all, none taken and thank you for the input.

Yes, this is the tree that was shown at the Winter Silhouette last year. Knowingly, I displayed this tree too prematurely. But, I wanted to use it almost as a teaching tool for the general audience. I aimed to show what one can do with pretty inexpensive material that can be purchased right at the show and create something pleasing in just a couple of short years. The tree was displayed alongside a small framed photo of it at the time of purchase (reposted below).

 

[Zach Smith]

My two cents: given your starting point, you could have created a rather ordinary looking classically styled smaller BC of which there are no doubt thousands. What you've done instead is make this a special bonsai by pushing the envelope. But of course you knew that already, right?

 

[LanceMac10]

@MACH5 went "Hulkamania" on the "envelope" with this one...
......and I love every bit of it!


Such an evocative image, the only limits are the viewer's imagination......

 

[AZbonsai]

@MACH5 went "Hulkamania" on the "envelope" with this one...
View attachment 272849......and I love every bit of it!


Such an evocative image, the only limits are the viewer's imagination......

The juxtaposition of the Hulk and cypress is very striking and shows a level of eruditness on your part that is rarely seen on this forum.

 

[Crawforde]

It’s all in the mustache

 

[Toraidento]

My two cents: given your starting point, you could have created a rather ordinary looking classically styled smaller BC of which there are no doubt thousands. What you've done instead is make this a special bonsai by pushing the envelope. But of course you knew that already, right?

This show off Serg's skill and knowledge I cannot take that away from him. He took a mediocre BC and turned it into a nice designed and we'll thought out tree.
But what happens several years down the road when the trees genetics and DNA take over and say hey I'm a Bald Cypress not a Weeping Willow? It starts throwing lower branches to focus on the Apex. You can't take a tree that wants to run along the ground wire it up and say you're a pine tree now grow up.

If it's a mediocre BC why not find better material. I mean for a noob like me, that doesn't have access to great material or the funds to get such material. It's one thing. Besides that I should stay with cheaper material to learn on and not make big mistakes with better material.

I also under stand it is an artistic deal also. He took a ordinary BC and turned it into a very nice looking tree. He's has every right to do so. He also has the ability to do so No Doubt about that. But again 10 to 20 years from now the tree will decide that it is BC and act as a BC.

I hope to see the progression to see how the tree acts. I am curious to see how it progresses

 

[Toraidento]

This is kinda Mediocre right??? It's a Bald Cypress. I bet you know it very well. Atleast I'm sure Serg knows it. Ill give you a hint it's out west in a museum.

 

[Toraidento]

Pacific Bonsai Museum Vaughn Banting's Flat top BC

 

[MACH5]

This show off Serg's skill and knowledge I cannot take that away from him. He took a mediocre BC and turned it into a nice designed and we'll thought out tree.
But what happens several years down the road when the trees genetics and DNA take over and say hey I'm a Bald Cypress not a Weeping Willow? It starts throwing lower branches to focus on the Apex. You can't take a tree that wants to run along the ground wire it up and say you're a pine tree now grow up.

If it's a mediocre BC why not find better material. I mean for a noob like me, that doesn't have access to great material or the funds to get such material. It's one thing. Besides that I should stay with cheaper material to learn on and not make big mistakes with better material.

I also under stand it is an artistic deal also. He took a ordinary BC and turned it into a very nice looking tree. He's has every right to do so. He also has the ability to do so No Doubt about that. But again 10 to 20 years from now the tree will decide that it is BC and act as a BC.

I hope to see the progression to see how the tree acts. I am curious to see how it progresses

Well truth be told I never said it was mediocre material, I said it was inexpensive material but not mediocre. Two reasons why I bought it. It had a really nice flaring base already. The other is that too often I see huge ones for sale and this one by contrast was small with nice taper and roots with no big chops. I fell in love with it at first sight because of its "charming" size. Go figure since I consider myself a big tree guy.

If we think about it, we struggle and fight all the time with our trees in making them and keeping them small. They want to grow big and tall. Yet we manipulate them through different horticultural techniques to keep them small for decades. Same thing with this cypress. Yes it wants to go up, but its energy through pruning and pinching can be redirected so that all parts including the lower ones stay healthy. We do this on a daily basis no matter the species.

I am seeing right now a design that has a very dense cascade of branches 10 to 15 years from now. Time will tell.

 

[MACH5]

My two cents: given your starting point, you could have created a rather ordinary looking classically styled smaller BC of which there are no doubt thousands. What you've done instead is make this a special bonsai by pushing the envelope. But of course you knew that already, right?

Thanks Zach! Well as you probably saw at the begging of this thread, I had styled the tree as an informal upright. I was happy with it for a bout 2 minutes but then quickly became bored with it. I happened to be studying the tree closely one summer day and saw one frond sort of curving downwards. That was my aha moment!

 

[Zach Smith]

Thanks Zach! Well as you probably saw at the begging of this thread, I had styled the tree as an informal upright. I was happy with it for a bout 2 minutes but then quickly became bored with it. I happened to be studying the tree closely one summer day and saw one frond sort of curving downwards. That was my aha moment!

That is an awesome story. I've had that sort of thing happen before. Best not to ignore it.

 

[Native Tree12]

Although I was relatively happy with the styling done back in June, I wanted to push the design and give the tree a more unique identity and character. So I decided to make it into a weeping style tree still keeping the double apex as a feature. I'd like to increase the volume of the canopy and further develop the ramification as the design settles and the tree matures. 16" tall from soil level in a 13.5" wide Reiho pot.


That is a beautiful looking BC ..Do what ever makes you happy ..and you like

I tend to like what Peter Chan and others say ...let it grow ?
I can see you doing similar in a littler bigger pot a forest style with a smaller tree to play against it

 

[MACH5]

I used a different approach this year in managing the weeping branches. I devised a wire cage in which the tree spent the better part of the growing season in it. In late summer I removed the cage which resulted in the branches having a nice downward arch. Afterwards the secondary and tertiary branches were further corrected with wire.

 

[Sekibonsai]

Thank you for the kind words! But... what??? Can't believe you don't like this tree! GASP! JK! I do understand that they don't grow in a weeping fashion and most have the classic flat top form. I get that.

My simple answer is let's remember that bonsai is also an art form. As such, we should reserve the right to have artistic license and change the game. I least I think so. No rule says that we should not style a tree of a certain species to look like another. I strive to make a tree look natural but not neccesarily represent its species in nature. I think that is creatively constricting.

BTW, as an interesting aside note, Owen Reich told me that he has seen weeping bald cypresses in the wild!





Don't really now about this. But I think if carefully managed, those lower branches should be fine. Time will tell.

There is a weeping variety of bald cypress... not that you need it to justify artistic license.

 

[barrosinc]

I used a different approach this year in managing the weeping branches. I devised a wire cage in which the tree spent the better part of the growing season in it. In late summer I removed the cage which resulted in the branches having a nice downward arch. Afterwards the secondary and tertiary branches were further corrected with wire.

View attachment 337968

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Wow!

 

[LanceMac10]

Take note of my eyes here, I'm completely smitten.....


....even though I look more like this...


excellence