AusBonsai

hey guys i've had this cypress for quite a while now and not known what to do
it had a very large chop when it came into my possession, it was found
with out a pot on the side of the road at about 1.5m and i chopped it down to about 80cm
i asked for advice about 6 months ago on what i should do and a informal up right was suggested
but i dont know if it was the heat and working in the sun yesterday
but i didnt think the informal would work so i did this
hopefully it will be something nice one day

any advice or thoughts are more than welcome
sorry about the poor photo quality

cheers
matt

Hi Matty-j, mate its not a Cypress , it looks like a Juniperus Virginiana x Spartan / Juniper Chinensis x spartan , there are numerous cultivars or variants of the Virginiana . Sky rocket which this is not is the most common used in landscape for its upright columular growth usually blue in colour . I think the common name is Eastern Red Cedar . They do make for a good larger bonsai , a brave move you have done , given time and the right conditions it should back bud and fill out quite well .

Cheers Alpine

Thanks for the feed back alpine much appreciated
Thanks for the Id, When you say time and the right conditions
What exactly do you mean? I understand the time part
It hasn't grown much since I've had it all I've done it water
And fertilize with dynamic lifter and osmocote slow release

Hi matty-j , mate i have a Virginiana Canaertii , very similar possible could be what you have there , one is garden specimen and the other a trainer . The trainer was place in the ground and power fed with Rustica Plus - NPK 12-5-14 its a compound fertilizer each granule is the same . In the ground mine double the trunk and height in 2 years then doubled again in the following 2 years . I did have a couple almost the same design as yours cut down from 1.2 meter pot plants a few seasons back but the struggled along in plastic pots and died , they lost vigous , stalled and died , never did work out what went wrong , healthy one day dead the next . They have a vigourous root mass so i can only assume that the pot was too small this restricked the growth way too much by not allowing enough moisture and fertilizer uptake . I believe over potting is better for this species . I will update the topic soon as i need to trim and reset the wires on mine .

Cheers Alpine

thanks alpine
thats interesting about your plants kicking it, hopefully my one will kick on
ill be looking forward to when you update the topic

Could it be Juniperis chinensis "torulosa" Alpine or hollywood juniper Anyway, a bold move for this time of year. If the tree is "lightning struck' then the top is a bit standard. if the tree is hit by lightning the branches that regrew would be hanging. Maybe you could make it a bit more distressed.

thanks for the reply bodhi
oh dont worry its distressed after what ive just done to it
haha just joking
what exactly do you mean by hanging? and distressed?
do you mean the branches wouldn't be as horizontal and be angling down the trunkline more?
giving a more distressed look?
if i was to do this what would i do to the apex?

Its time that to rewire this tree, I am very unhappy with it at the moment.

I plan on lowering the dead wood and lowering all branches down (should have listened to Bodhi's comment when I originally worked on it )
One of the main issues I have with the tree is the main branch to the right of the tree has an ugly bend where it leaves the main trunk and it has become quite stiff so dramatically bending it will be difficult.

I thought about moving a branch infant of the bend to hide it?

Any thoughts?

I didn't understand what Bodhi meant about the branch until seeing the tree after a couple of years growth.

I would think about changing the front to have the foliage in front of the dead wood. It looks like it's growing well.

I got around to re wiring this tree last night, it wired about 80%. Ill try and take a better photo this afternoon.
Cheers
Matt

Making progress Matt!

Big improvement, well done. My only suggestion might be to bring the big right branch down and in, and make the tree narrower and more focussed. Hard to tell in 2D of course.

You might like to look at some Dan Robinson photos - his carving has lots of holes and furrows and complications. Lots of fun.

Thanks for posting,

Gavin

Cheers for the feedback

I agree completely with lowering and shortening the right hand branch. I intend on shortening every branch as the the tree develops, although i am finding it rather difficult to get back budding so I can shorten it

Any advice?

Cheers
Matt

hey matty

love the progression so far reading down this post im like oh no what has he done couldnt picture it but after seeing where its at now im sure you are very happy with its progression and not bad for a tree found on the side of the road

I finished wiring and this tree today and also shifted a few branches, it is really starting to take shape!

Any thoughts or comments welcome!

Cheers
Matt