So today I had a chance to work on my huge Trident maple which I enjoy a great deal.  Every winter I watch as temperatures drop and leaves start to fall letting me know that it is almost time to work on this amazing tree.  Only problem I find is that this tree takes a lot of wire and the large stuff too (5mm wire).

The branches needed to be flaten out into pads to allow for more interior growth and open spaces between the branches.  This year the tree has developed well and lots of new developments.  Next year at this time it should be looking very good.  As you know by now this phot is not of the front of the tree, but instead the left side. 

The reason I took the photo from this side is to show a problem that I have with the tree itself.  I am in dire need of a low first left branch.  two years ago I had one pop out but it didn’t make it through the next year.  I am tempted to thread graft but I thought I take a look at what is goin on the trunk.

However as I looked closer

Then even closer I was amazed to see the smallest of little growth popping out through the very old trunk of the tree.  Although it is appearing a few inches away fom where I would prefer it to be, I can certainly live with this.  Let’s just hope this liitle branch makes it this year and becomes the strong primary branch of this tree that it so badly needs.

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So last night I reviewed the pictures of my bald cypress and I still had some issues with it.  Namely the second top on the left and the large pot that I had the tree it.  The second top was competing for attention and really didn’t add anything.  So I went back to the Bonsai Bible, John Naka’s Bonsai Techniques I.  There it was on page 205 Figure 384.  It says “Do not select a tree that is divided at the upper part of the trunk.”  Can’t get much clearer than that.  The second top had to go.

The next challenge was to get this tree into a pot about half the size of the previous one.  I removed a lot of mass under the soil line, and some roots, but the tree should do well in this new pot.  The good news is that I can finally pick the tree up without hurting myself.

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There are a lot of issues that I have had with the bald cypress that kind of bothered me.  Probably the most prominent was the “hips” that the tree had.  It just looked very unnatural to me.  However I had planned to hide those imperfections with some nicely placed branched. 

I had grown the top out to help the scar heal, which it made great progress on during the year.  Though I didn’t have the “A-HA” moment until Suthin had visited me back in August of this year.  He liked the tree, but as he walked by he said, look at it from this angle…   Of course he was right.  From a view turning the tree wbout 30 degrees clockwise all my issues went away.  Now why didn’t I think of that. 

Also Mike Rogers had commented about the height of this tree to me on that same day, and I now agree with him.  So since the weather was cold and this tree is now dormant, it was time for major changes!

 The easiest of the problems was the height.  You can see how much growth I had last year and how much new cambium had rolled over the huge scar.  Although it needed to be reduced. 

That’s a big cut for sure.  I may actually clean the piece up and count the rings.  I’d love to have some idea how old this tree really is. 

A straight cut angled downward towards the back.  By doing the cut in this manor you hide the scar and create a drmatic taper to the tree. 

Well there turns out to be a method to my madness.  I reduced the height down to the first useable branch.  The placement, thickness and size of this branch makes it a perfect candidate for the new top of this tree.

Okay so here we have the new top wired in place and I used my giant Root Cutters to round off the straight edges of the big cut.  This allows for the cambium to easily roll over the scar and in time will totally heal over.  I added a coat of cut paste over this large wound to help the health of the tree while it healed.

So here is the finished Bald Cypress after all the changes.  Look how much better the line of the tree looks now that it has been turned.  Also the height is much better.  Since this photo I have tilted teh tree a bit more to the left.  It looks a little off balance in the photo.  I’m still looking at the second trunk and am considering lowering that as well.  I still hav eplenty of time this year to decide.

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It has been just about two years that I tried an approach graft on my trident maple.  Well today as I was doing some repotting I looked at the graft and see that it was successful.

You can see at #1 the branch that was used for the graft.  Number 2 is the new branch.  You can see how much bigger it is than the original branch.  This shows that the branch has grafted to the cambium of the tree and is now sending food down to the roots.  The size difference is sure indictaion of a successful graft.  Section 1 has now been cut so the branch is own it’s own.

 This photo was taken when the graft was first started.  You can see how clean the cut was before the cambium rolled over the graft.  Also the branch was the same thickness at both ends.

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