Chamaecyparis forest over slab.

Fidur

Chumono
Messages
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Location
Canary Islands , Spain. Europe
USDA Zone
12
A thread to follow the progression of this forest:

JMK_3747.jpg

A bit of history.
Two years ago I began to style my chamaecyparis thyoides red star, and decided to root some cuttings.
After that process I had about 17, different sizes cuttings. These are most of them then:

IMG_20210903_161615.jpg

As I've always cherished the idea of making a forest, I've been thinking for a long time on materiales (slab, driftwood, stones,..) and design. But I'm lazy and procastrinator (great virtues in a bonsai beginner) so I've been postponing the assembly. Finally, last week in a couple of hours I did all the work.
Used a garden step as slab (about 15$ in the garden center), and mainly akadama as soil. Also a plastic mesh to create the boundaries of the soil (later, I cut and retired almost all the mesh in the front side). Put some lava+akadama on the bottom of the soil, placed the trees and covered the edges with keto:

IMG20240501185828.jpg IMG20240503111343.jpg IMG20240503115429.jpg IMG20240503163247.jpg

This is the back of the forest after mossing

IMG20240505162508.jpg IMG20240505162532.jpg

and the front, with the mother tree

IMG20240505113430.jpg

My first goal is the survival of this 9 tree forest, but I still have 8 of these trees to replace any casualty.
So wish me luck and let's see how it evolves....
 
A thread to follow the progression of this forest:

View attachment 545424

A bit of history.
Two years ago I began to style my chamaecyparis thyoides red star, and decided to root some cuttings.
After that process I had about 17, different sizes cuttings. These are most of them then:

View attachment 545442

As I've always cherished the idea of making a forest, I've been thinking for a long time on materiales (slab, driftwood, stones,..) and design. But I'm lazy and procastrinator (great virtues in a bonsai beginner) so I've been postponing the assembly. Finally, last week in a couple of hours I did all the work.
Used a garden step as slab (about 15$ in the garden center), and mainly akadama as soil. Also a plastic mesh to create the boundaries of the soil (later, I cut and retired almost all the mesh in the front side). Put some lava+akadama on the bottom of the soil, placed the trees and covered the edges with keto:

View attachment 545443 View attachment 545444 View attachment 545445 View attachment 545446

This is the back of the forest after mossing

View attachment 545448 View attachment 545449

and the front, with the mother tree

View attachment 545441

My first goal is the survival of this 9 tree forest, but I still have 8 of these trees to replace any casualty.
So wish me luck and let's see how it evolves....
Nice work. Incorporating snags was a good choice.
 
Stellar, stellar, stellar! I love it
 
Didn’t realize there was such a cool cultivar my native “swamp cypress”. Very impressive composition, especially considering it will only get better.
 
Your forest looks great! I have a love hate relationships with my C. thyoides “Meth’s Dwarf”. I bought it mainly for the nebari hoping I would be able to train the canopy in a manner similar to C. obtusa. However I have generally found that it is a very unruly plant that doesn’t respond well to my efforts. I have threatened to make it a landscape tree but just haven’t had the heart to do that, yet.
 
Nice job on this. Did you drill any holes for drainage? Just wondering how this does holding water if no drainage holes?
 
Nice job on this. Did you drill any holes for drainage? Just wondering how this does holding water if no drainage holes?
These grow in cedar swamps along the east coast, often in association with bald cypress. I keep mine wet, wet, wet!
 
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