Nursery Dumpster Diving Cypress

[tmmason10]

Great to see that it's grown so well. Love the new pot and can't wait to see it in it's new home.

 

[jkd2572]

Here is a winter wiring update. I will put in a real pot in the spring. I will also do some more carving in the summer to increase the taper at the top. Still in the structural branch setting stage but no bad after being trunk chopped last spring.

 

[Poink88]

Sorry...I do not like the way the branches are wired. Maybe just my weird taste.

 

[jkd2572]

It's a flat top. The top needs to be wired like that. The side branches will be shortened and let grow out again. I'm letting them grow long to get them thicker first. I wired them all the way for no good reason. The movement I was trying to achieve is in the first 6 inches or so of each.

 

[monza]

Not sure i've viewed many flat top bonsai just googled after reading this, kinda cool.
Is the style meant to replicate tress of african savanna? Do you have a pic of what your thinking your finished design is going to look like?

 

[Poink88]

Flat tops that I know (and like) do not grow that way. For me, good references are the BC mangroves and African savannah/Serengeti like this...

View attachment 29612

Note how the branches are formed.

Check the BC at the bottom of this link as well.
http://andyrutledge.com/book/contents/bonsaesthetics.htm

 

[jkd2572]

You have to picture the top after I carve further down. It will give you the curve your looking for. I then pick new leaders from next summers growth and cut the now top leaders back to those. And then do that over and over again. Bald cypress grow like weeds and I will have hundreds of options to cut back to. I will follow up again next year.

 

[mcpesq817]

I have a similar BC that I'm converting to a flat top. I don't think it was a bad thing to wire out leaders, but I would have wired them out relatively vertically, rather than horizontally like you did. You will need them to grow out to increase in thickness to improve the taper transition (as well as heal the chop site).

I would think first about growing the next 3 or so inches and healing the chop before thinking about the lateral branches. The ones lower on the trunk are probably fine since these are very apically dominant trees.

 

[jkd2572]

I'm following John geanangel's example as seen on the link below. He the best expert I have found on the subject. I like the style he is going for so that's what I'm trying to do. I also plan to keep rewounding the scar like he does as well to get the scar to heal over.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-UiN2MU2S0c

 

[mcpesq817]

I don't think he wired the apex branches out horizontally though.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Jeremy, that is a nice big trunk, great start. I really like it. A couple thoughts about your branches. I posted images in this other thread, actually thinking I was in this thread, so follow the link over, if you aren't already following the other thread. http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?9822-Bald-Cypress-with-knees/page3

If you are going for a naturalistic bald cypress look, the angle of the branches as they exit the trunk should be somewhat upward, say something like 30 degrees up more or less, then begin an arch downward. They don't come out pendulous as in weeping spruces. The "flat tops" aren't really flat either. They are domed. Even the image in Andy Rutledge's book (previously linked to) is a low domed top. Often a straight vertical secondary trunk becomes the apex, because the main leader gets broken off in a violent storm.

I do see that it is the bending within the first couple inches of the trunk that is relevant, I know the rest is to be removed and regrown later. You have a nice tree there. I am going to start shopping for one myself.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Flat tops that I know (and like) do not grow that way. For me, good references are the BC mangroves and African savannah/Serengeti like this...

View attachment 29612

Note how the branches are formed.

Check the BC at the bottom of this link as well.
http://andyrutledge.com/book/contents/bonsaesthetics.htm

There is a subtle difference between the look of the African savanna flat top, versus the low rounded dome one actually sees in southern US bald cypress. The dynamic causing the shape is different. In Africa, long term steady straight line winds and grazing by giraffe's and elephants are the causal agent. In the US, no grazing is involved and the winds are not steady for very long. It is usually violent, often cyclonic (tornado & hurricane) winds that take out the tops. And in the southern US, it is the weight of the Spanish moss that lowers the branches to create a low dome, rather than a 'flat top'.

At least to my eye, I haven't seen any part of Africa in person yet, so other than 2 D images I have no feel for what an African savanna looks like.

Point is, if one is going for a naturalistic style, the savanna acacia is not a good model for a bald cypress.

However, if one is just creating a different image, it doesn't matter what species you are using, we are growing these for our own pleasure, we can create the images we want to.

 

[jkd2572]

After all of the feedback on the apex I have readjusted so that the limbs are no longer horizontal. I bent them to more look the angle of john's tree in the video. I had thought i watched that video a hundred times, but after the 101th time i finally saw the angle he was working with. Thanks everyone for the input. Sorry no pics the camera is dead. Maybe some time this week.

 

[small trees]

After all of the feedback on the apex I have readjusted so that the limbs are no longer horizontal. I bent them to more look the angle of john's tree in the video. I had thought i watched that video a hundred times, but after the 101th time i finally saw the angle he was working with. Thanks everyone for the input. Sorry no pics the camera is dead. Maybe some time this week.

I'd like to see the pics. I'd like to see the other cypress that you mentioned in the original post too if you don't mind.

 

[jkd2572]

I will post a pick in a few weeks when I put him in his first bonsai pot.

 

[jkd2572]

Pic as of today. It had just rained. It's a bit over grown right now with a bunch of sacrifice branches going this way and that.

 

[fraser67]

Here's a reply
Awesome trunk!! Enjoyed the progression. This pic doesn't do it justice. I would like to see how the top is healing and how your carving is coming along. I have one (much smaller), and always curious to see what others are doing...
Thanks

 

[fore]

What a find Jeremy! Amazing species to be able to wack back those roots that much and it thrives! Looks great in the new pot too!

 

[jkd2572]

Here's a reply
Awesome trunk!! Enjoyed the progression. This pic doesn't do it justice. I would like to see how the top is healing and how your carving is coming along. I have one (much smaller), and always curious to see what others are doing...
Thanks

Thinking about carving it Down even further to make the transition more believable. Next May I will finally decide. I have been thinking about the idea all year. Once it's done can't add back. I'm about 85% going with the idea. Basically hollowing out the truck to the first branch. I fully believe the canopy will survive, but still thinking about what it will look like. John g who is a member here has done it to a similar tree. I like his results I'm just proceeding with caution as the replacement cost would be much more than I paid for this guy. Given the unbelievable life this species has I have also toyed with the idea of carving it almost to the base. Great big hollow beast of an old tree. Would make it much easier to pick up.

 

[fraser67]

You might think about carving some handles in that beast
It actually might help with the lack of taper and movement in the top quarter...given the height of the tree. It really is quite a spectacular tree!
I look forward to your progression.
Thanks,
Jonathan