New Addition to my tree family! Native too!

[0soyoung]

@0soyoung and @Underdog Just trying to figure out why a commercial nursery would chop a tree down to just a few inches and regrow it. ... doesn't look like a cultivar anyway

Yes, indeed.

These got mowed down to be the root stock to which cultivar was to be grafted. They ran out of scions and yadda, yadda, yadda.

 

[Underdog]

This is the original.

Mine is from the same nursery but original label says
Lindsay Skyward #5 Taxodium

 

[GGB]

I'll take that reasoning. But yeah, upon further review Underdog's branches look like they're curling upward, while the OP's look normal to me

 

[cbroad]

@Underdog
I heard somewhere that if they become rootbound and you prune off too many roots or prune off a thick root, that could kill them because the root crown has effectively been lowered because of being pot bound. I don't know if that's the case with yours but if that's true I suspect that's why I've killed so many. Has anybody else heard this before?

 

[StoneCloud]

here are some BC from Florida put together some different shapes in nature for our viewing/reference:

 

[Velodog2]

As Alan T says: "These, are role models".

 

[Underdog]

Anyone remember Gulliver's island? The Liliputs came to visit...

I know it looks silly. Spent too much time removing hundreds of brown tips and making Lindsay a bit less skyward. Gaining more light for the top to grow knowing full well that it's going to get chopped off this winter.

 

[Dav4]

So, is the the "flat top" style a natural look for the bald cypress?
Do they grow that way in nature?
Most of the ones I see are triangles, point up....but I don't know if they are mature trees....
I guess it depends on its location and what's right around it blocking sunlight, huh?
I'm thinking that a flat top style might be more likely to happen in an area where there are many trees all competing for light.....so they grow tall and spread out up top....?
What do you think?

... yup.

 

[Dav4]

Mine is from the same nursery but original label says
Lindsay Skyward #5 Taxodium
View attachment 150007

So, this is a dwarf cultivar of T. distichum and will likely be grafted.

 

[just.wing.it]

... yup.

Wow, nice..

 

[just.wing.it]

Update...
Not much to see other than how much it's grown...and the "tired" inner foliage...
It's doing very well.
I intend on repotting it next spring. It will be interesting to see the root base, and find out what I'm working with here.
I'll probably put it into a very large, plastic training pot, get the roots moving in the right direction....and continue to let it grow out....might have to trim it back some just to keep it a manageable size, but I want to let the trunk thicken up.

It's been in its nursery soil and in a tub of water and has done very well.

 

[just.wing.it]

Here's the first pic from June.

Really filled out a lot.

 

[Vance Wood]

You ought to research chopping the trunk back. It is obvious the tree is capable of a lot of growth you should look into getting it to grow how you want it to. Chopping back near the end of a growing season often helps in giving bulk to the trunk which is what you need.

 

[just.wing.it]

You ought to research chopping the trunk back. It is obvious the tree is capable of a lot of growth you should look into getting it to grow how you want it to. Chopping back near the end of a growing season often helps in giving bulk to the trunk which is what you need.

Very interesting!
I always thought that simply allowing it to run was the best way to thicken...

 

[Vance Wood]

Very interesting!
I always thought that simply allowing it to run was the best way to thicken...

That's why I said to research the tree, most of the time you're right but there are some trees if you do that you wind up with a tree that is a very tall with a fat ass tree and nothing between the base and the top. Sometimes you have to let the trunk thicken at the base then chop the tree down and repeat the process to assure when you get the fat trunk you have upper branches to work with.

 

[just.wing.it]

That's why I said to research the tree, most of the time you're right but there are some trees if you do that you wind up with a tree that is a very tall with a fat ass tree and nothing between the base and the top. Sometimes you have to let the trunk thicken at the base then chop the tree down and repeat the process to assure when you get the fat trunk you have upper branches to work with.

Yeah, that's a good point.... I will do some research tonight, maybe I should chop...
I appreciate the heads up, VW!