Chirimen Hinoki Cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa "chirimen")

[humboldtmadness]

Just picked up this neat little tree today on a lark. I suppose it might be considered a "mallsai" or "nonsai" but I thought it looked pretty good. Most of the material I have to work with now are years out from being worth looking at too much, so this was more of an immediate gratification move. It came in a half gal container and I planted it in the cool little log shaped concrete pot with some pillow moss.
It could use a little shaping, a bit of wiring and maybe trim a bit so more of the trunk and branches are exposed, but I don"t want to take off too much and stress it any further. If anyone has some experience with this variety and could offer some advice that would be fantastic! For now I will just leave it alone and enjoy.

 

[0soyoung]

There is an absolutely fabulous one that Owen Reich wires out in an episode of Bonsai Art of Japan (Bjorn's series on YouTube). I too rabidly sought one and procured a Chirimen like yours.

My experience is:

• difficult to grow
• best suited to mini/shohin

I wired the trunk of mine because it was not straight and I thought I wanted to make what Owen made. Wire bit in and the trunk swelled dramatically (where it did). I played with some non-linear trunk ideas and ended up cutting off 2/3 of it. I think there is maybe a nice mini/shohin to be had, but I need to develop a thicker lower trunk (it is troublesome to get the wire tight at the base of a trunk plus to wind irregularly enough that it doesn't make a distasteful barber pole (it would be easier with a curving/twisting trunk as opposed to straight).

IOW, it is challenging. But why else bother?

 

[humboldtmadness]

Thank you for your insights, I will keep those things in mind while going forward with this one. I hope with time yours takes shape into something that you are truly happy with.
I know I said I would leave mine alone for now, but I was looking at it after taking a drive where I saw some majestic old trees and did a little dit of trimming to give it a bit of that older tall tree look. I did my best not to paint myself into any corners and leave enough material to develop into new branches to choose from later.
Any additional insight that any of you may have would be helpful, thank you.

 

[fh05]

Owen works on a sekka, I think. Not sure if it is much different from chirimen.

 

[Stan Kengai]

This look very similar to sekka hinoki, but it is slightly different. I have a sekka and they are very prone to 2 things: shading out inner and lower foliage, and spider mites. Give it as much sun as you can, and treat with malathion. Like all hinoki, they do not backbud on lignified wood and they like more water than a typical conifer but don't like to be wet.

Here is a pretty good read on general hinoki culture: Taming the Hinoki

 

[Owen Reich]

Owen works on a sekka, I think. Not sure if it is much different from chirimen.

Sekka and Chirimen are definitely different. One caveat is where the cuttings were taken from the stock plant. Vertical, vigorous shoots will always behave in a different manner than lower, lateral growing shoots once rooted.

Sekka has a flatter foliage layout and Chirimen is more of a spiral.

I have seen many varieties called “Sekka” in Japan and some are more compact than others when allowed to grow freely.

 

[Aiki_Joker]

Interesting stuff Owen. I'm going to take cuttings from some obtusas this year. Is this behaviour limited to the first season or two when cuttings are left to grow of does it continue through the life of the tree? And what is the usual difference in growth habits on vertical/apical region vs laterals? Would the apical region cuttings be more likely to survive?

 

[Owen Reich]

The behavior of stock plants and cutting location is going to be in most propagation books. I’d reccomend Dirr’s Manual of Woody Plant Propagation. It’s quite thorough. Sometimes you can read a chapter for free via preview online, but it’s worth having. Used it all the time when I propagated tons of species for work.

 

[Aiki_Joker]

Indeed. That is a very good book for sure. It is on the list. Im going to bite the bullet and order it based on you're recommendation mate. There is a larger one for nurseries with a similar title that looks very good for scalability stuff. I looked at these for chip bud grafting. This looks to be better for landscape trees that have to last hundreds of years... as good as planting the graft below ground. Anyway, I just found this chirimen in a UK garden centre for 8.99GBP! They must be getting more available and common.