[Dingus] glyptostrobus pensilis (Chinese swamp cypress) progression

[LittleDingus]

I'm starting a thread to track some of my work with Chinese swamp cypress. This is a "new to me" species so it's likely to be a bumpy ride

I bought 4 these back in January.



They were dormant and in bags of wet soil so I just cleaned off the old soil, root pruned 3 of them pretty hard and left one basically untouched. I then threw them in grow bags with a DE/fir bark mix. They then got set aside in the garage for a few months.

Once temps started remaining above freezing at night, I moved them outside. They've taken a few hours there and there of below freezing temps and a few frosts, but nothing that would have frozen the root ball. My understanding is these guys can't take a freeze like baldies can.

They've started budding out so they seem ok

I was just going to leave them for the summer since I know very little about the species...but then...

I bought a pot late last year with the idea of putting a shohin sized bald cypress in it. Since purchasing the pot, I've moved the few baldies I have into a small group/forest planting (5 trees) to save some space....which left me with nothing to put in the pot But now I have these guys...so why not!

I pulled up one of the ones that had been root pruned pretty hard and was surprised at what I found! Lots of fine roots!



I didn't take as many pictures of these from the initial potting as I should have The only root picture I have is from the one I didn't root prune at all. They all looked pretty much the same though...a couple of thick roots that followed the outline of the pot they used to be in and some fine feeders off those.



See how one of the hard pruned ones responded, I had to go find the tree I did have a reference picture for and pull it up to see.



It's been making lots of new roots too! This is basically 2 1/2 months of root growth while the tops of the trees were dormant. Until I kill one, I'm not going to worry about root work on these guys

Since I had it pulled, I did cut back the downward traveling roots before repotting that tree in the same soil it came out of with a fresh topping of cypress mulch.



I then went back to the tree I wanted to put in the pot I had. It got a root prune too:



Then it got tied in to a new/smaller set of shoes as best I could. The tie downs in this pot were not well positioned for where I wanted the tree The tree is not tied down as securely as I'd like...but if it continues to grow roots like it has the past few months, it should be stable again in no time!



I pruned a lot of unnecessary branches but left a couple extra long in order to keep some existing growth. I really have zero personal experience with these guys. At this point, less worried about making a presentable tree than I am about learning if I can keep it alive in a tiny pot! And, if so, how does it respond to being hacked and slashed I do have 3 others that I'm planning to just grow out for a few years first.

Because I like to give artists credit for their work The pot is from Robert Wallace at WallaceWoodsPottery. When I bought it, I was thinking a bald cypress and trying to grow some wolffia or other small water plant in the side pocket that has no drain holes. Something to give it a swampy feel. A Chinese swamp cypress should work just as well, I would think

 

[ibakey]

This is a pretty interesting species. I wonder if they are available in Europe.

 

[LittleDingus]

This is a pretty interesting species. I wonder if they are available in Europe.

It took me a long time to find them in the US.

I see that Sheffield's has seed in stock now. I don't know if they ship international but might be an option. I probably would gone that route had I found the seed first.

 

[ibakey]

Yeah, I am quite interested in trying to grow some chinese swamp too.
I managed to find some from Ireland in Europe so its all good!

Sandeman Seeds | Seeds, Seedlings & Plants | Sandeman seeds

Sandeman Seeds collects, processes and sells seeds of trees and shrubs, seeds of mediterranean, subtropical and tropical plants, seeds of ornamental grasses and perennials, seeds of herbs, medicinal and aromatic plants.

www.sandemanseeds.com

I look forward to getting them and starting to germinate them.
Thanks!

 

[LittleDingus]

Yeah, I am quite interested in trying to grow some chinese swamp too.
I managed to find some from Ireland in Europe so its all good!

Sandeman Seeds | Seeds, Seedlings & Plants | Sandeman seeds

Sandeman Seeds collects, processes and sells seeds of trees and shrubs, seeds of mediterranean, subtropical and tropical plants, seeds of ornamental grasses and perennials, seeds of herbs, medicinal and aromatic plants.

www.sandemanseeds.com

I look forward to getting them and starting to germinate them.
Thanks!

Keep us updated! I generally prefer starting from seed but now I have enough of these. But maybe I can enjoy watching yours sprout from a distance

 

[LittleDingus]

It turns out I didn't get this tree wired as securely into the pot as I would have liked. It's been flopping around and rolling about long enough now that I finally got few up with it and decided to try and wire it in more securely!



Fresh healthy new roots...but not as many as I expected. I won't know if that's due to the growing environment or the nature of the species until I eventually repot the 3 that I put into grow bags to continue to grow out. The tree doesn't seem unhealthy or struggling in any way...but I did plug the drain holes and do keep the pot wet/partially filled with water.

The problem I had the first time with wiring into the pot is that there aren't wire holes where I'd like them to secure this tree where I want it. I'd like to secure it higher up the crescent but there aren't wire holes up there. Even the lower wire holes aren't very effective given the size of the root ball this tree currently has.

I opted to wrap the trunk and secure it lower for now in the hopes of giving it a better chance at establishing a better root system.



Growth wise, it has budded out in quite a number of places.



I think, given some time and a little more knowledge of how best to handle them, this could be a nice little tree at this scale.

For reference, here's one of the other 3 I have that I'm trying to grow out. This one is kept in ~3" of water.



The foliage on these is a lot more delicate than on bald cypress.

 

[LittleDingus]

Yeah, I am quite interested in trying to grow some chinese swamp too.
I managed to find some from Ireland in Europe so its all good!

Sandeman Seeds | Seeds, Seedlings & Plants | Sandeman seeds

Sandeman Seeds collects, processes and sells seeds of trees and shrubs, seeds of mediterranean, subtropical and tropical plants, seeds of ornamental grasses and perennials, seeds of herbs, medicinal and aromatic plants.

www.sandemanseeds.com

I look forward to getting them and starting to germinate them.
Thanks!

@ibakey, did you order any seed? Were you able to get any started?

 

[LittleDingus]

I've been meaning to do this for a while...but I finally had a container with me when I walked past a pool of duckweed!



Even in the high heat we've been having, I've been able to keep that little "pool" filled with some water. I've been wanting to do something similar with my bald cypress forest but it's been drying out too much in the heat to keep enough open water for duckweed to not dry out.

 

[LittleDingus]

Welp, this was not planned



I went out of town for a bit. I did have someone watering my plants, but it got hot enough that this one probably needed water twice a day while outside. I really should have brought this and a few others inside while I was out of town. I came home to 4 trees about this size that were green and healthy when I left and dried and crispy when I returned One larger tree that was collected last fall is now suffering greatly as well All have had major work done this year so mostly my fault for not bringing them in and asking for special attention. The person who waters for me is awesome! But she doesn't have the time/system down to know what to look for in my collection. Had she known these needed a more careful eye, they would have gotten it.

I'm positive the rainbow euc is a goner. 3 of the other ones were oaks. One is a suber that I'm sure is a goner. The larger tree and one of the other smaller trees are chinquapin. Those two might survive...probably won't know until next spring now though

This one I can't guess about...not enough experience. It was not fully brown when I returned but it is nearly fully brown now The main trunk doesn't look desiccated...but the unlignified branches do. Were it a bald cypress, I'd guess it would survive if I was careful enough with it over the winter...I wouldn't see new growth until then, though. These guys?? We'll see, I guess!

My other 3 of these are still looking great! But I'd hate to see my little practice tree get turned into mulch

 

[Carol 83]

Welp, this was not planned

View attachment 393131

I went out of town for a bit. I did have someone watering my plants, but it got hot enough that this one probably needed water twice a day while outside. I really should have brought this and a few others inside while I was out of town. I came home to 4 trees about this size that were green and healthy when I left and dried and crispy when I returned One larger tree that was collected last fall is now suffering greatly as well All have had major work done this year so mostly my fault for not bringing them in and asking for special attention. The person who waters for me is awesome! But she doesn't have the time/system down to know what to look for in my collection. Had she known these needed a more careful eye, they would have gotten it.

I'm positive the rainbow euc is a goner. 3 of the other ones were oaks. One is a suber that I'm sure is a goner. The larger tree and one of the other smaller trees are chinquapin. Those two might survive...probably won't know until next spring now though

This one I can't guess about...not enough experience. It was not fully brown when I returned but it is nearly fully brown now The main trunk doesn't look desiccated...but the unlignified branches do. Were it a bald cypress, I'd guess it would survive if I was careful enough with it over the winter...I wouldn't see new growth until then, though. These guys?? We'll see, I guess!

My other 3 of these are still looking great! But I'd hate to see my little practice tree get turned into mulch

So sorry to hear that. We just got back from vacation also, and I also have a great waterer/friend/neighbor. But I forgot to mention that one Gardenia in a smaller pot (not bonsai) needed extra watering. It's not dead, but has some crispy leaves and looks iffy. Sucks because I got the Gardenia because they were my moms favorite and it's in a pot my son gave me for Christmas.

 

[LittleDingus]

So sorry to hear that. We just got back from vacation also, and I also have a great waterer/friend/neighbor. But I forgot to mention that one Gardenia in a smaller pot (not bonsai) needed extra watering. It's not dead, but has some crispy leaves and looks iffy. Sucks because I got the Gardenia because they were my moms favorite and it's in a pot my son gave me for Christmas.

Thanks @Carol 83

I think part of the issue was we got a huge dump of rain one day early in the day so she skipped that day _plus the next!_ The smaller pots don't work like that Even the bigger ones are free draining enough not to store up water in the way she is used to. Most of her plants are in more organic soils that can store water a little longer.

Bottom line: I thought about bringing the smaller pots inside for the week. But that meant watering with a watering can...which there are enough to be annoying to water that way. So I left them outside

Ah well...I've been downsizing anyway...

 

[LittleDingus]

I took the time to pull out the 3 larger ones today to update their status as well.

One of the 3 is potted by itself in a grow bag. The grow bag is set in a deep drip tray. I keep the water level pretty high this way.



The other two share a grow bag. They sit on a shallow drip tray. This mostly helps keep them from drying out but they don't ever sit in more than half an inch of water.




The soil looks like mud, but it's really not. They are all in 100% NAPA 8822 that is top dressed with a thin layer of compost manure and some cypress mulch.

These guys have a definite habit...at least when young...of spitting out numerous branches from the same area.



This year I've just been letting them run. But I may have to come up with a strategy for more regular pruning...at least in areas of the trees I intend to keep.

I'm looking forward to fall color now!