Cypress Bonsai Making: Why, Once It Falls into Human Hands, It Barely Survives Without Losing a Layer of Skin

Sometimes when I watch them make bonsai out of cypress, I really get the feeling that cypress must have some grudge against humans. Once it falls into the clutches of a bonsai artist, it barely survives without losing a layer of skin. No matter the size, no matter whether it is underage, none can escape this fate.

In 2002, this bonsai artist was wandering through a flower market. After making a full round, he had not taken a fancy to anything good. Thinking it over, he had driven such a long way, and it would be a shame not to buy a couple of trees after coming all this distance, so he bought this Chinese juniper.

After getting home, he cut it bare.

After that, it was planted in the ground for a year and a half. It grew very well, so he dug it out, ready to pot it up and style it.

He got a somewhat larger pot and planted it in.

Then, without a second thought, he cut away more than half of its branches and leaves.

Once a cypress falls into human hands, being stripped of bark is unavoidable. Right away, more than half the bark on the trunk was peeled off. You have to be ruthless.

Then he wrapped it with metal wire and gave it a bit of a hairstyle. The stylist was quite satisfied and thought it looked absolutely great.

Another 18 months passed, and this ill-fated cypress once again suffered a cruel fate. The bonsai artist felt the previous styling was a bit too complicated, and the more he looked at it, the less pleasing it seemed, so he lopped off its top as well. From a small sapling with lush branches and leaves, in less than two years it had almost turned into a bare stick, and it was even moved from an 18 sq m single room into a 4 sq m partitioned space.