AusBonsai

Dug this out from a garden during this week.

Cheers
Chris

Hi Chris, is the reverse taper noticable from other sides or just the side in the pic? It was the first thing that jumped out at me.

Cheers,
Mojo

yes mate reverse taper on the bottom but I will layer it when it recovers

Yes, airlayering is the way to go. Any chance you know what it is?

Great find mate! Looked at this earlier, but didn't have time to comment... With a year long layer and some refinement you'll have yourself an awesome tree. I would love to work with something like that, reverse taper or not. Bar the reverse taper stock like that would cost me about$270+, from the local bonsai nursery, I've looked a few times but haven't bought one yet.

G, day Skippy that reverse taper looks more like a graft point. Looking at the foliage, the name escapes me at the moment. They were produced a lot in the late 80's early 90's for the landscape industry. Mainly for water features for the cascading form.

Would be an interesting project to work on. Hope to see a progression with this.

Cheers Pup

I have never had any experience with reverse taper, by the looks of it, the reverse taper is fairly pronounced.

However, in the case that it wasnt so bad, or you had a bit more thickness to work with on the smaller part of the trunk, would carving and creating some dead wood be a viable option?

gareth

Cupressus macrocarpa 'Greenstead magnifica'

Fantastic looking plants, absolutely awful to work with. From what I have experienced with them, make sure the layer is still below the graft union so you still have the plain C. macrocarpa portion producing the roots. I have tried all sorts of methods & many many times to get them growing on there own roots, cuttings and layers just dont work out.

Matt

There ya go Skippy, you dont need to buy any of my Junipers...You can just go dig your own! Good find. Will be interesting to see what you do with it.

Thanks Matt thats the one, as you say if he does decide to layer. Amen to them being shari to work with. Interesting though as usually they do not last too long.

Maybe it was to dry here in the west have not seen any here at all any more. We have had a phytophora ( not sure of the spelling ) knocking of the Cupressus, for a few years now, so that maybe the reason.

Cheers Pup

Pup, there are some really huge ones still hanging around in Sydney gardens of the 80's that have avoided the current craze of renovating & monotype landscaping. I reckon you could be right about the dry over your side, of all the conifers I find the Cupressus require more and more constant moisture than the rest, I think thats what has killed the last 3 or 4 greensteads I have had, drying out.

I have a Cupressus sempervirens 'Swanes Golden' that was on deaths door because the owner thought he could treat it like any other conifer & let it dry out. With constant moisture it has made a speedy recovery (for a conifer).

Matt