AusBonsai

I bought this back in January thinking what a great starter. It was quite leafy and I hadn't realised when I bought it that the whole trunk above the first few branches was dead, which was unfortunately the way I was planning to take the tree at that time. I came up with a new plan instead that I'm now quite happy with.

Nice work, the old peg on the branches! Great improvement

I think it was the best thing to happen. You will have a much better tree with great taper down the track. Stick it in a gravel tray or on the ground and let it root through the pot to speed up the process.

Much improved

Ken

Please excuse ignorance... "swampie"?

I love the fineness of the leaves.

PJs Ronin wrote:Please excuse ignorance... "swampie"?

Swamp Cypress I believe
There are some really cool videos on the 'net about collecting them from the wild in Florida and Louisiana in the US.
Amazing what they do over there to dig them out of swamps

Ken

This is it today, before and after haircut. What exactly are you supposed to do with the leaves? I saw a few at the Cairns bonsai show last year and they had small leaves, it looked almost as if they defoliated a week or so before the show and got a whole bunch of mini leaves happening right on time for the show.

You shouldn't be concerned about the leaves for about another 10 years.
At the base you have a bit of a bulge happening which is good, as these have fairly tall straight trunks in the wild, with large buttressed roots at the base. When the swamp is in the dry season / low water levels, these trees looks amazing with the wide tangled roots exposed as well.

Of course it depends on what look you are going for. But if it was mine I'd be getting a lot of height happening on it with a strong leader, and let it grow for many few years in a grow pot. However if you are after a short thick tree, then go ahead ramify away. You can get good ramification on Swampies just by using the clip and grow technique. Don't be too tempted to continually cut them back though. They need lots of sunshine and to grow to remain in good health.

With swampies in a bonsai pot like you have, you need to be careful over summer / hot days that it doesn't dry out and die. They have the name 'swampy' for a reason

EDIT - Also, just noticed your collection of weeds in the pot.... Probably not a good idea, as these are going to suck the water out of the soil on hot days and the tree will be competing for water / soil.

I would personally let it grow out a bit to give you some more branches to work with. I would be careful with the roots in that small pot though as in my experience they grow extremely quickly.

Love how fast this tree grows! Just decapitated it again:

Swampies love a chance to grow hard for a period of time it will help with branch development too