A Detailed Guide to Caring for and Pruning Cypress Bonsai
Today, the editor will introduce cypress to everyone. Cypress, as you all probably know, is very common in daily life and widely distributed. Its shape is very large, like a staircase. Its leaves are like brooms. One of the excellent materials for making bonsai is cypress. How do you grow cypress bonsai? This is quite particular. Let's go and learn how to prune cypress!
How to care for cypress bonsai
1. Placement: Chinese juniper (Juniperus chinensis) is best placed in a spot with humid air and plenty of sunlight. In winter it can be placed indoors to overwinter, and in midsummer care must be taken to shade it and prevent scorching by the fierce sun.
2. Watering: Cypress species should keep the potting soil well supplied with moisture, but must not become waterlogged. Normally it is best to mist the branches and leaves frequently, which promotes robust growth and keeps the foliage emerald green. Pines prefer sunlight and dry conditions and do not tolerate wetness, so water them when the soil is dry and mist the foliage often. Cypress species can be watered somewhat more freely.
3. Fertilizing: Use dilute, well-rotted cake fertilizer water or organic fertilizer, applied 2-3 times each year from March to May; in autumn, rotted cake fertilizer crumbs can be placed in the pot. Pine species should not be given heavy fertilizer; in spring and autumn one or two applications of light fertilizer water are enough. If cypress species are to grow vigorously, more fertilizer can be applied.
4. Pruning: Cypress species do not tolerate heavy pruning, but the tips can be cut off to encourage side branches. Generally, when new branches and leaves emerge in spring, trim them short in time to keep the crown dense. Young shoots should not be cut off with scissors; they can be pinched off with the fingers to prevent the wounds from turning rusty and spoiling the appearance. If large branches need to be reshaped, this should be done during the dormant period.
5. Bud pinching: Pinch buds when growth is vigorous; removing buds and leaves can make the branches short and the foliage dense. For Chinese pine (Pinus tabuliformis) and Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora), removing part of the new growth in summer can produce new buds within the year. For Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii), after pinching buds in spring, several new buds can grow again the same year, and the following year the branches grow short and the foliage dense.
6. Repotting: Cypress species should be repotted once every 2-3 years, preferably in March to April in spring, or in autumn. When repotting, trim and tidy the roots appropriately, remove 1B3-1B2 of the old soil, and replace it with fertile, loose leaf mold, mixed with an appropriate amount of rice-hull ash (that is, carbonized "retained-property" rice-husk ash, which is black) and sandy soil.
7. Pest and disease control: The main disease of cypress species is rust, and the main pest is spider mites, which cause quite serious damage and must be controlled promptly. The control methods are the same as for creeping juniper.
Pruning methods for cypress bonsai
1. First, temperatures near 35 degrees will be hitting every day in the near future. It should be moved to a shaded spot, especially avoiding strong light before and after noon, to prevent high-temperature watering and prolonged strong light from causing necrosis of the nutrient roots at the soil surface. Excessively high temperatures and strong light can also cause yellowing and yellowing. To keep the potting soil moist, follow the principle of "dry pine, wet cypress" and provide enough water during the growing season to maintain the potting soil; it must not become waterlogged. Under the current high temperatures, water should often be sprayed onto the leaf surfaces as well.
2. It is impossible to resist pruning, but the top part can be cut off to encourage side branches. In spring, when new shoots sprout, they should be trimmed in time to keep the crown thicker. It is best not to use scissors to remove the shoots, but to pinch them off with the fingers, which prevents the wounds from rusting and affecting the appearance. If large branches need to be repaired, this should be done during the dormant period.
How to make cypress bonsai
1. Material selection
There are two sources of material for cypress bonsai. One is sowing, starting from seedlings to cultivate and shape. Because young seedlings tolerate transplanting and are easy to shape, they can be gradually worked on and shaped according to the design requirements. Although it takes a long time, the bonsai produced is relatively ideal. The other method is transplanting from the wild. In nature, some old cypress stumps, after years of wind and rain, lightning strikes, and damage by animals or people, form all kinds of strange shapes: some are broken, some hollow, some have exposed roots, some are dead and dry. These are all ideal materials for making bonsai. Cypress has a well-developed root system, especially abundant fine roots; when transplanting, the main root can first be cut and the fine roots retained. The above-ground part should have the branches and trunk shortened, and the messy branches and leaves clustered on the trunk and branches should be cut away, as well as long-stemmed branches and parallel branches, taking care to keep the dead wood. Because cypress grows slowly, as many branches as possible should be retained. The best transplanting time is after early winter and before early spring, before growth has begun. When transplanting, a soil ball should be kept to protect the roots. When a soil ball cannot be kept, every effort should be made to keep the fine roots intact, and measures such as misting and shading should be used; planting should be done as soon as possible to reduce the time out of the soil. Bare-root transplanting can be done during the rainy season.
2. Assessing the tree and determining the style
Cypress does not fear severe cold; even beaten by snow and frozen, it stays as green as ever, hence the praise of "evergreen pine and cypress." In making cypress bonsai, the characteristics of ruggedness, uprightness and majestic momentum are mostly emphasized. Some old cypresses have bark that has already split off, or are hollow, yet still have luxuriant branches and leaves and undiminished grandeur; such old cypresses can be made into the dead-wood style. Some trunks lean naturally, with mottled bark full of an ancient air, and can be made into the slanting-trunk style, with a single trunk or double trunk determined according to the condition of the branches and trunk. Some old cypresses grow on cliffs, in mountain streams or in rock crevices, with the trunk bending sharply from the root crown, like a waterfall plunging straight down with magnificent momentum; these can be made into the cascade style. Some cypress stumps have twisted branches and trunks, bending left and turning right, like a swimming dragon, with peculiar and natural forms; these can be made into the lying-trunk style or the coiled-trunk style. Some have roots exposed or lifted, with old roots crisscrossing, and can be made into the exposed-root style bonsai. In short, according to the natural form of the cypress stump, follow its momentum, capture its spirit, and bring out its soul.
3. Pruning and shaping
Because cypress grows slowly, it is generally not heavily pruned; instead, the method of mainly cultivating, combined with pruning and adjusting, is mostly used, so that it has a natural manner without being stiff and rigid. Old cypress stumps have the characteristic of twisting and spiraling, with a natural rhythm and a unique grace. Therefore, the twisting-and-binding method is not used to shape cypress stumps, so that the trunk forms spiral vertical cracks and presents elegant arc-shaped curves. Some tree stumps have branches, trunks and roots that are decayed and eroded; these can be guided by the situation, shaped according to their kind, and appropriately carved by hand, to achieve an effect that follows nature and yet surpasses nature. Newly dug tree stumps have rather mixed and long branches; for overly dense branches, keep the drooping ones and those on the lower part of the crown, suppress strong branches, make the trunk and side branches compact in structure and natural in distribution, and use traditional binding and pulling techniques to work them according to the laws of natural growth.
How to choose cypress for bonsai
1. Cypress does not fear severe cold; even beaten by snow and frozen, it stays as green as ever, hence the praise of "evergreen pine and cypress." In making cypress bonsai, the characteristics of ruggedness, uprightness and majestic momentum are mostly emphasized. Some old cypresses have bark that has already split off, or are hollow, yet still have luxuriant branches and leaves and undiminished grandeur; such old cypresses can be made into the dead-wood style.
2. Some trunks lean naturally, with mottled bark full of an ancient air, and can be made into the slanting-trunk style, with a single trunk or double trunk determined according to the condition of the branches and trunk.
3. Some old cypresses grow on cliffs, in mountain streams or in rock crevices, with the trunk bending sharply from the root crown, like a waterfall plunging straight down with magnificent momentum; these can be made into the cascade style.
4. Some cypress stumps have twisted branches and trunks, bending left and turning right, like a swimming dragon, with peculiar and natural forms; these can be made into the lying-trunk style or the coiled-trunk style. Some have roots exposed or lifted, with old roots crisscrossing, and can be made into the exposed-root style bonsai. In short, according to the natural form of the cypress stump, follow its momentum, capture its spirit, and bring out its soul.
Overall, cypress bonsai is currently the plant people most love to grow. If you want to choose something to place at home as a decoration, you can choose a cypress bonsai. During pruning, you must also pay special attention to technique, to avoid harming the cypress and to let it grow better.