AusBonsai

Hi all,
I have recently had my interest sparked in bonsai after some 15 to 20 years away, and after a recent trip to the RED DRAGON bonsai nursery in currumbin i returned with a swamp cypress.
It is only potted stock at the moment and i am not sure when I can work with it and when i should leave it alone as it is the first deciduous tree i have owned after i killed a nice chinese elm back in 94.

I intend on styling this one in the formal upright style but it needs to go into a grow box for a while first to get some size about it.
heres a few pics of it anyway.

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The last photo is of the top where it has been cut off before and 3 newmain shoots have emerged, two of these I will have to cut off to leave one to form the top of the tree, I have put theclothes peg in the pic just for scale.

Hi Solemndragon,

You'll have fun with the Red as they are very hardy plants that make excellent bonsai. What do you think the root flare is like?

Cheers,

Brad.

Hi Solemndragon,
You will probably find swampies are not deciduous in rocky and will continue growing all year.the best time to work on them is spring but you can do a bit of styling and trimming now.Keep it in a tray of water when the temps start to warm up and add plenty of fertiliser and away it will go
Steve

Brad I have no idea what the root flare is like I havent got that far with it, but as I read more and more about them the more curious I am. I have to wait til later this week til I get a chance to repot it into something bigger, I'll see whats under the surface then.

Steve I was thinking the same I have seen a few swampies up around here and have never seen them lose their leaves, we are lucky in growing terms to have reasonably warm temps year round, with temps only getting right down for approx one or two weeks a year. And when I say temps get right down I mean only down to around 16 to 20 degrees.

I would work it now - the worst thing about swampies is their roots. Naturally they just go straight down and have right angles in them. I would get it into something shallow and sit it on a gravel tray or on the ground. Let the roots escape and also get a sacrifice growing to fatten the base. Heaps of DL and it should rocket away in one to two years

Bougy Fan wrote:I would work it now - the worst thing about swampies is their roots. Naturally they just go straight down and have right angles in them. I would get it into something shallow and sit it on a gravel tray or on the ground. Let the roots escape and also get a sacrifice growing to fatten the base. Heaps of DL and it should rocket away in one to two years

Would you recommend this for any area Bougy fan?
I recently purchased a swampy and I was planning to wait til winter to bare root and repot into a colander. It is currently in a smallish black nursery pot... could I do this now?

Well summer is over - here in brissy they don't all go deciduous so I don't think root work while they are growing is an issue. I have been potting up some seed grown plants in the last few weeks. I usually lose a few but only because I am very harsh with getting rid of downward growing roots. The only consideration is not if it is going to be 40 degrees and if you are a beginner goes easy with the root pruning until you get to know the species. Make sure you cut back the leaves by at least half to compensate for the root loss. Swampies shoot back all along the trunk so you can cut all the branches off if you wanted to - but you should take it in stages to make sure it's OK for your tree and your area.

Very good. Thanks for that. I think it would be safe to say we won't be getting up to 40 for awhile. I might wait for a cooler day and repot.
thanks for the advise

Sorry to hijack this thread, but my question is very similar, but I'm down south in Vic where things do cool off a bit in winter! I purchased a swampy in training recently and just moved it out of its plastic nursery pot and into a bigger, but shallower oversized bonsai pot. Being so close to winter I did it with minimal root disturbance. But now it's in the pot I'm thinking its sitting very high and I probably should have trimmed a few of the thicker downward growing roots to get it lower and encourage more shallow roots. Should I pull it back out now and give it a bit more of a trim or leave it until spring?

Jase, In melb I would wait until winter/ spring. Your tree will be fine in the pot you have until then. The fact that BougyFan can repot swampies while they are still active means that theoretically we could probably repot in summer but with our winter so close the tree may not have time to grow new roots to sustain itself until next year.

I recently purchased a swampy and I was planning to wait til winter to bare root and repot into a colander.

BB Surely you will be waiting for a very long time for winter to arrive in Cairns

shibui wrote:Jase, In melb I would wait until winter/ spring. Your tree will be fine in the pot you have until then. The fact that BougyFan can repot swampies while they are still active means that theoretically we could probably repot in summer but with our winter so close the tree may not have time to grow new roots to sustain itself until next year.

I recently purchased a swampy and I was planning to wait til winter to bare root and repot into a colander.

BB Surely you will be waiting for a very long time for winter to arrive in Cairns

You're right Neil... What I meant to say is when it dries up a bit and isn't as humid...
Just trying to fit in with everyone who has more than 2 seasons

Should Swamp Cypress be kept with the lower roots in water all year round? Or just the hotter months?

They will survive in water year round but grow equally well, possibly better without roots in water provided the mix is kept reasonably damp.

Hi Solemndragon, Looks like you have the beginnings of a good bonsai there. I have been reading the replys to your request and most seem to hit the mark. I have been growing swamp cypress as bonsai for the last 30 years and one thing that I have learned in that time is to do it and do it now. The swampie grows really fast and in Rocky it should not need to be kept in water, just plant it in a good quality mix, plenty of humus and fertilizer and water well every day.Bring the tree up out of the pot a little more to see what can be used as surface root, trim back any really strong downward roots, trim back the top growth and plant in a poly box Get some basic styling under way now so that you can direct all the energy into what you need to keep. Rocky is probably a bit hotter and wetter than Brisbane so there should be no worries to do all this now. My swampies tend to be semi deciduous here in Brisbane but yours might stay in leaf right through. Formal upright will be out due to the shape in the trunk plus the cut top, I would suggest Informal upright. Good luck with the tree and keep us posted. If you are in Brisbane next weekend, I will be at the Bimer Club annual show. Michael.

I also bought a tree from Red Dragon, a year or two back.

Curious what soil mix people use for swamp cypress? I have been planning a repot to start addressing the roots.

I have mine sitting in a pond, does anyone know if this will give me any leeway with aggressive in root pruning?

Does being in the pond suggest a different soil mix? I mostly use diatomite for all my trees these days, though that might float away in the pond...

Can I take half the downward roots, or should I start with a third?

Cheers
Elmo