My Bald Cypress in its fall color.

[edprocoat]

This is my Bald Cypress I posted here last year after I bought it at a local nursery and chopped it down. It grew amazing this year and I chopped it several more times to keep it small and let the branches fill out. Now its fall again and it has turned a pretty reddish color on most the foliage. Its almost totally turned but as we are getting into a bad rainy and much colder spell I am afraid the foliage is going to fall before it completely changes, so here it is now.


Fall cypress by edsnapshot, on Flickr

Other side.


Cypress fall by edsnapshot, on Flickr

ed

 

[stacy allen muse]

???????????

 

[edprocoat]

True they grow like weeds. Stacy I did about every thing wrong with this plant possible, I chopped it down from over 3 feet tall to 8 inches at the end of October. I also bare rooted it at the same time finding a mess of circular roots about the thickness of a pencil at the bottom of the container and few fine roots so I was afraid to trim the thick circular roots. I brought it to Florida with me and after two months gave it up for dead and dumped it in a refuse pile. In march I went out looking for some moss and seen it had sprouted two little buds at the top and took it home with me. Then I figured what the hell I may as well chop off those circular roots and cut them completely off leaving a few fine roots and see if it would live and after all this it grew the two shoots back near 3 feet in a month !

I do not know if its visible in the pics but I have wired the branches down and cut them several times, you can see the ones that have grown back upwards at odds with the directions of the branches that were wired down. I will cut these again after they go dormant and I hope they will sprout out again with some finer branches and thicken up a bit. I am forever a Cypress fan now.

ed

 

[the bonsai kid]

Very nice makes me want to go get one or two

 

[jk_lewis]

In summer, you have to run to keep up with growth on a BC. If you don't trim at least a couple times a week, you get branches going every which way, as here. As soon as the leaves drop, I'd trim and wire. Keep the wires on all winter. BC branches have a very long memory.

 

[edprocoat]

In summer, you have to run to keep up with growth on a BC. If you don't trim at least a couple times a week, you get branches going every which way, as here. As soon as the leaves drop, I'd trim and wire. Keep the wires on all winter. BC branches have a very long memory.

Uh thanks? jkl, actually all those branches were wired "every which way" by me to spread them out in a radial shape looking down from the top. The ones sticking upward are what came from the last spurt of growth after I trimmed it late sept.

ed

 

[edprocoat]

Well here it is all naked and bare. I shortened many of the branches and wired some movement into the straight ones. I am going for a sort of flat-top look while trying to maintain a small tree. I would eventually like to put it with my new much bigger one in a large pot, hopefully the big one will take off as well as this one did, only time will tell.


Stark by edsnapshot, on Flickr

The chop I did on the trunk filled in, in one summer. Its barely noticable now.


Chopgone by edsnapshot, on Flickr

ed

 

[JudyB]

What is up with the Etape around the trunk?
Also, I would think about shortening some of the branches much more....

 

[jk_lewis]

I agree. The branches are too long, and too "wiggly." It looks like a sea anemone . Bends, if any, in BC branches are sharper; more abrupt.

Cut it back, let new branch grow, cut back at a side branch, etc. for a more zig-zag look. Maybe 3/4 as long as these.

Doing a short BC is difficult. This one -- because of its trunk -- has a lot of promise.

 

[Poink88]

What is up with the Etape around the trunk?

I am assuming to get the roots close to (or fuse them with) the trunk.

I agree about cutting it back more and re-build the branch structure by clip and grow.

 

[jkd2572]

I have a monster 5 feet tall one and a baby 1.5 feet tall one. Getting ready to cut back hard and wire. I have found if YOU have enough energy you can do this a couple of times per year.

 

[edprocoat]

Judy, poink was right, the tape was for a big root on the side that was almost fused to teh trunk but over the summer growth it seperated about a quarter inch. I am hoping to get it back together or at least touching as it was. I already cut back all the branches by about 4 -5 inches each. I want to let them get some side branches to grow off what I have. I bent them all squiggly like that to let them all get some light and maybe seperate the foliage when it comes in.

JKL, sea anemone was what I was going for, you must be pyschic ! If it grows like last summer that will be temporary anyway. Thanks, now that you mentioned sea anemone thats all I can see.

ed