It has been touted that there are cypress that are eight hundred to one thousand years old. I can not attest to that simply because I have never seen one that old.
However there most likely are some that are that old. The bald cypress is called that because they will begin to shed there needles in the early fall and will remain that way until the next spring thus the tree looks bald.
In early March April or sometimes May the tree will begin to bud up again and get its needles back and will remain until the fall again.
These beautiful trees love to be wet and they are most often found in very swampy areas however they can also survive in soil that is not kept wet.
The cypress will do well as a bonsai if kept in a fairly deep pot and kept pretty much like a bog most of the time. If left to dry out then you would have a tough time to nurse your plant back.
Cypress growing in the wild have very large flared trunks at the base and if grown as a bonsai it will take many years to get a trunk of substantial size.
You could if you wanted to field grow your plant for a few years to obtain trunk girth and then work it down to be of a size suitable for bonsai. Perhaps the most significant stands of these trees are in the state of Illinois where there are some that indeed are spectacular.
The needles are very light green and will turn orange in the fall the cypress looks like it could fit into the family of conifers but it is deciduous.
If you want to have your best luck with this type of plant for a bonsai then I would highly recommend buying some small starts and then using them to create a forest scene as in the Chinese style of bonsai pronounced as punsai or penjing or a planting that looks like a landscape.
At the beginning your plants will be very slender and not require a deep pot and will have fairly small root systems and they would lend themselves to this type of planting very well.
Select a pot that is shallow in depth but rather long and half as wide and you’ll have a good pot for your trees then always stager your trees in this type of planting just as they would look in a forest never in a row either from left or right.
The cypress can stand full sun and if you want to start more then take cuttings or learn how to graft, or simply buy more starts. They could be grown from seed but this would take you several years.
Most people are way too impatient to wait for a tree to grow from seed.
Fertilize your cypress during the normal growing season from March to late September and then slack off when the tree begins to loose its needles indicating that it is going to sleep for the winter months.
Wiring can be preformed best just as the buds begin to emerge in the early spring and you should also transplant any trees that need bigger pots at this time too.
There are many types of cypress so do not get the bald cypress confused with other varieties. This variety is Taxodium distichum and is what you should be looking for if you want this material for bonsai or for your landscape.
You can see a couple here that I have worked on now for a number of years and they are now becoming very nice bonsai.
Thanks for reading:
By: Harold Yearout
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