Taxodium mucronatum demo

[Grant Bowie]

Hi all,

I stuggled as to which section to list this tree under.

it is a conifer but is considered "semi evergreen"; whereas the Taxodium distichum is fully deciduous.

It would be able to be grown as a clip and grow if you wish as it will bud back freely like a deciduous tree.

Taxodium mucronatum before work June 2011.JPG

The tree was grown from seed I collected on the ground in the Botanical gardens in sydney in 1993.

it was grown initially in a pot then in the ground for about 4 years and then for the last 6 years or so in the current plastic pot.

I chose to use this tree at the recent Bonsai By The harbour. More to come.

Grant

[Grant Bowie]

2 Out of pot and in[attachment=0]3 As we go down we find a flaring base.JPG

specting roots..JPG[/attachment]

4 And a high heavy root.JPG

Once out of the pot I worked in a blur of activity as we explored the root system.

[Grant Bowie]

6 Root gone.JPG

Once the root was gone I spent quite a while selecting the front as there were lots of pros and cons on each side.

[Grant Bowie]

4 possible fronts were identified and then whittled down to one.

7 One side.JPG

8 The eventual front side.JPG

9 Looking at the eventual choice of front.JPG

[Grant Bowie]

11 out come the power tools.JPG

12 marking with waxy chalk the carving area.JPG

13 carving started.JPG

[Grant Bowie]

14 Steven asking a searching question.JPG

15 Plunging in the carver to deepen the hole.JPG

16 Photography for the day ended here but a little more carving and shaping got done later on.JPG

The format of BBTH gives plenty of time for everyone to walk up and ask the demonstrator. As you can see Steve had a few questions.

This was as far as I got on the day. We now need some spring growth to start fattening the new apex.

Lots more carving to do; shortening of branches and forcing back budding.

I will not rpot till spring next year.

grant

[Watto]

Really enjoyed the demo and information on this particular tree and species in general. Hope to see it potted in the next few years, and in full foliage.
Very educational.

[Waltron]

Nice demo.
I always wondered why my Taxodium doesn't lose it's leaves, now I know why.
After seeing this thread I spent a bit of time researching Taxodium Mucronatum and read quite a few times that they're extreamly drought tolenant.
What's your expenience with this Grant? Because I lost the top third of my tree when the water tray it was sitting in went dry (In Autumn...that's what happens when I entrust others to do my watering for a few days).

[Jerry Meislik]

Nice work and demo Grant.
Keep us updated on its progress.
Jerry

[Grant Bowie]

Nice demo.
I always wondered why my Taxodium doesn't lose it's leaves, now I know why.
After seeing this thread I spent a bit of time researching Taxodium Mucronatum and read quite a few times that they're extreamly drought tolenant.
What's your expenience with this Grant? Because I lost the top third of my tree when the water tray it was sitting in went dry (In Autumn...that's what happens when I entrust others to do my watering for a few days).

Taxodium mucronatum is more drought tolerant than Distichum but I haven't grown them or my big distichum in water at all for about 15 years now.

Mucronatum will tolerate being wet; it does not produce knees like the Distichum

Taxodium mucronatum is more touchy than Distichum when being dug out of the ground and I have also lost the top half in that situation. For repotting purposes I treat it as a deciduous tree and in Canberra will repot in early spring.

I hand water only and only employ the best bonsai sitters when I am away.

grant

[Grant Bowie]

Update.

Tree still has a way to go but here it is today.

It was in a bigger pot for about 3 years and did quite well.

The root system is very flat and shallow now so I did an autumn repot on it, although I did a spring repot on it 3 years ago. A nice Japanese pot.

In the mean time it has grown many branches than originally and I integrated them into the design; and so next season I will be doing some culling/shortening/bending/wiring etc to progress it a bit further.

IMG_7227.jpg

Grant