Chamaecyparis

This is my first Bonsai This site has realy help me,on the 
care and style of a C.p.`Plumosa' Thank You

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Date:         Tue, 12 Mar 1996 17:17:08 -0500
From:         AndyWalsh@AOL.COM

Hinokis are practically idiot-proof when it comes to Bonsai. My VERY 
FIRST Bonsai was a Hinoki. To give you an idea of how almost idiot-proof 
they are; I still have it!

This Hinoki and a Cotoneaster were my first Bonsai and since I did 
not know that they should be kept outside over the winter I kept 
them in my upstairs bathroom. The house was warmed with gas-fired 
forced hot air. Air as dry as a bone all winter. Bad as that was, 
I know I didn't water them properly that winter either. The Cotoneaster 
died but the Hinoki survived unscathed. That was the winter of 1977. 
In spite of various forms of benign neglect and unintentional abuse 
in my early years it's still with me.

I have not had any trouble with root pruning Hinokis. They have roots 
similar to Juniper's and I would treat them similarly. The Hinoki 
likes to be somewhat wet and I use a soil mix that is about 1/4 crushed 
granite, 1/4 calcined clay, 1/4 bark, and 1/4 peat humus. I buy premixed 
soil these days (1/3 crushed granite, 1/3 calcined clay, 1/3 bark) 
and I add the peat humus. I cut away at least 1/3 of the roots every 
other year.

I would wash away some of that soil (certainly not all right away) 
to get a look at what you have there. If there are not a lot of 
roots I'd plant it in the ground for a year or so and start styling 
it there. Otherwise I'd plant it in a very large wooden container 
with very fast draining soil. I would make sure there are many good 
feeder roots developed before I planted it in a container. Although 
Hinokis don't bud back even on young branches they certainly develop 
roots easily enough on cuttings from those branches so I'm sure you 
will have many new roots soon. Two or even one year in such a
container should be enough to develop the root system enough for safe
transplanting into a Bonsai container.

I have let my Hinokis go dry on occasion and it's not a disaster 
but I would avoid it and keep them on the wet side. The scale like 
growth is kind of like a succulent and doesn't seem to be affected 
much by the soil drying out.

Basically, Hinokis are a cinch to keep alive and healthy. I can't 
even seem to kill them. (Not that I've really tried but after all 
these years you'd think at least one of them would have died).

To this day I'm still surprised that the Hinoki is not seen more as a
beginner's choice for Bonsai. However, there is one drawback to 
growing the Hinoki that probably keeps them off beginner's lists 
and that is keeping on top of the growth. After all these years I'm 
still learning how. Proper pinching, thinning, and wiring are not as 
easy to learn as on a Juniper, or at least they're not as obvious to 
grasp. If you let Hinokis get away from you, they will prune and thin 
themselves and always not to your liking. Without constant attention 
to wiring, the fan-like growth will turn into whirls and shade out 
much of the inside growth which will then brown up and fall off come 
autumn. Once those inside branches brown up and fall off they are 
gone for good. You cannot correct this mistake by pruning the branch 
back and blithely waiting for a host of new buds to pop up for you 
to choose from like you can with a Juniper. There will be no new 
foliage and that branch is gone and so is any design you may have 
planned.

Because of the whirl-like growth of the fans it is hard to see the 
branchlet structure unless you flatten the fans out with your hands. 
It's then that you can see better what you probably need to do but 
then you realize that a third hand is necessary to do the pruning 
and thinning. It takes some getting used to but it definitely needs 
to be watched over carefully every year. The Hinoki grows continuously 
and must be pinched all season long to keep it in bounds. If you 
don't you'll be sorry since you can't correct mistakes.

There is not much written about the training of Hinoki in any of 
the Bonsai books I have (~70) and not much has been written in the 
various Bonsai journals (I did a search of the Indices). Luckily 
though there was just an article recently in International Bonsai 
(1995/No.3) that I feel did an excellent job of covering pinching 
and thinning and also overall culture. If you are growing Hinokis 
or plan to grow them get this article. It certainly helped me. The 
Indices also pulled up an article, again in Int. Bonsai (1985/No. 3), 
entitled "Training Hinoki Cypress Bonsai". I can't speak for this 
article since I don't have it but it's probably worth getting as Int.
Bonsai generally has good articles and there is little else out there to
choose from when it comes to Hinokis. There is another article in 
Int. Bonsai (1989/No.4) called "Developing Hinoki Cypress Bonsai 
from Cuttings" which isn't bad; however, growing Hinokis from cuttings 
is almost as easy as breathing in and out so it's not the most useful 
article in my mind. (In my "guilt-ridden" days I felt it necessary 
to try to root every pruned branch out of respect for the tree. 
However I was soon surrounded by little Hinokis, as all of them 
rooted regardless of the conditions I tried to root them
under. I now throw all Hinoki prunings away. They could easily be 
considered the Bonsai equivalent of Tribbles).

Hope this helps,

Andy

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Date: Sun, 19 May 1996 13:39:40 PDT
From: Phil Stephens 

This is one of my favorite, and more frustrating, trees in my
collection. Favorite because of the beautiful soft blue-green foliage, 
the naturally graceful shape, and the interesting root development it 
displays. Frustrating because I have NEVER seen a specimen of this 
tree that didn't have brown, dead-looking foliage in its center.

The full moniker for this tree is Chamaecyparis pisifera 
'Cyanoviridis'. It is apparently not terribly well-documented in 
bonsai literature; I've had a terrible time finding hard data on it. 
Therefore, most of what I'm going to relate to you is experiential 
rather than derived from books.

This seems to be a very slow-growing tree. It seems to prefer an 
upright and compact conical growth. This is one of those rare trees 
that can naturally grow itself into a beautiful shape with little 
interference from you. It does like sun, and insufficient sun can 
lead to lots of dead foliage. The tree can recover from all sorts of 
damage, but the process is very slow.

Prune back the long tips of new foliage shoots as they appear and 
grow out of proportion to your desired shape; this will improve 
the density of the center of the plant. This is not a tree that 
likes really severe pruning, and to my knowledge will not bud back 
on old wood. I prefer to pinch out shoots rather than cutting them 
whenever possible.

I do not really recommend heavy wiring on this tree. The branches are
brittle and any wiring you decide to do must be done with extreme 
caution. Again, this tree can be trained very nicely with pruning 
and you may not find much wiring to be necessary or desirable.

I give this tree a feeding with Miracid every week or two. I am 
adding a foliar spraying of Miracid to the regimen with good results 
so far.

If anyone else has experience with this tree, especially with regard 
to eliminating the ugly center stuff, I'd like to learn more myself...

Thanks!
Phil

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Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 15:12:26 
From: Brent Walston 

Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Boulevard' (Iris has pointed out that the 
often used name 'Cyanoviridis' is invalid} is an easy to grow, 
vigorous plant if you follow certain procedures.

The cardinal rule for 'Boulevard' is that the soil must be well 
drained and it must never be overwatered. It hates wet feet, and if 
kept saturated it will turn a dry light blue color and it is 
sayonara. Use pine type mixes with lots of coarse sand, do not over 
pot as this will keep it too wet. Give it lots of good light. It 
is a strong vigorous tree and stands up to even our hot dry air in 
full sunlight when planted in the ground (Northern California). As 
bonsai give it full morning sun, or longer in a cool humid area.

It grows 6 inches to a foot a year or more and will require regular
pinching. This is preferable to periodic hacking which will damage 
the blue foliage and give you lots of brown tips. It will bud back 
when pruned past the foliage, but this is not a sure thing, and 
should only be done it late winter or early spring, well before the 
new foliage begins to push. It is very flexible and can be wired to 
shape, but it takes a very long time to 'set', and will require 
multiple wiring and removal to keep from biting into the fast growing 
wood.

The soft blue foliage is very attractive, but rather large for
Chamaecyparis. In my opinion it works best for larger bonsai which 
will put the foliage in proportion, say 2 to 4 foot size. But this is 
largely a matter of opinion. It doesn't take long to get a large 
plant. I grow them to five gallon size with 2 inch trunks in about 
4 years. I have a 6 inch thick twin trunk in training that is about 
15 years old, it would have been much larger if it had been planted 
in the ground.

They are pretty greedy and should be fed regularly with acid fertilizer. 
I have discovered something interesting about most blue foliage 
plants, and that is that most respond to acid feeding with high 
magnesium. This turns them intensely blue. Magnesium is easy to 
apply by watering occasionally with epsom salt, one teaspoon per 
gallon. Hard alkaline water will reward you with sickly yellow blue 
foliage.

Root pruning should only be attempted in late winter just as new 
root growth is beginning. It is possible to do it at other times, 
but this is the safest.

Brent
Evergreen Gardenworks
bonsai@pacific.net

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Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 15:09:31 
From: Neil Harrison 

Christian Calderon wrote:
> > It's a blue moss cypress, 3 yrs old.    Help, please ,,I think I'm killing
 it.
> > Everything seemed to be fine, until last week when I realized that the
> > bottom branches are drying out.

> >Should I water it more, for longer time?

Brent Walston wrote:
> I killed some of these in the early days, I am assuming it is 
> Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Cyanoviridis', also known as Boulevard 
> Cypress. They are suseptible to root rot from water mold 
> diseases. Watering will only make the problem worse, the disease 
> clogs the vascular tissue and prevents the plant from taking up 
> water. Take it out of the pot, shake off all the soil and repot 
> it in coarse sand. Soak the roots with a fungicide solution. Benomyl
> may work if that is all you can get, Subdue is better. Allow it 
> to go a little dry between watering, don't water by the calendar, 
> but let the plant tell you when it needs watering.

Christian, I've killed three, too, so I'm also an authority!  Actually,
I do have one living now (my third season with it-was three years when I
got it) that is really beginning to show potential.  I have found them
to be touchy trees with respect to their growing environment, but VERY
beautiful trees, nevertheless.

As far as watering, I don't think this is your problem (see below), but
Brent offers some excellent advice and I think the key to growing
Chamaecyparis pisifera is a course, fast-draining soil mix and misting
as a supplement to watering (in addition to sun as detailed below).
After I killed my first two, I did some reading about this species
(these days, I try to read FIRST!) and discovered the parent tree from
which this cultivar is derived grows along sandy mountain streams in
Japan-hence, the requirements for sandy, fast draining soil and misting.
As Brent suggests, I would let it dry out ONLY a little between
waterings and mist foliage regularly.  In my part of the south, I
sometimes water twice a day during the hot time of the year because the
soil dries quickly.

Christian wrote:
> Should I take it out in the sun?

Brent wrote:
> If it is in the house, take it outside, and give it morning sun only or
> light shade. If you do this it has a 50/50 chance of survival.

Christian, I suspect lack of sun is the root of your problem at this
time.  If I infer correctly, to take it OUT in the sun, you have it
INSIDE.  This tree needs lots of sun.  I killed my 3rd C. pisifera for
lack of sun.  I confirmed this with the growers at Brussel's bonsai farm
who have a large number growing very well with absolutely no protection
from that hot Memphis sun.  The fact that the bottom branches are dying
first (they receive the least light) could also infer lack of sun as the
problem.

In fact, I would bet the farm that if you do have this tree inside, lack
of sun is your main problem and would avoid further stress on the tree
by repotting, root-soaking, etc. until you get it out into the sun for a
while and confirm by other symptoms that root rot from water mold
diseases is indeed the culprit, imho.

------------------------------------------------------------------
                  Neil Harrison----Houston, Texas
       email: nil@nol.net     web: http://www.nol.net/~nil/
        office: 713.973.6501   (@ @)    fax: 713.973.6521
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Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 
From: "David J. Cushing" 

[Friendly stuff snipped]

.. this batch is a stretch, since I have only grown a few of
each of these for a short period of time.  So I guess I would
caution you to take my input more lightly than another with
more under their belt.

>Chamaecyparis obtusa: Hinoki cypress
Watering:  Whenever soil gets fairly dry (like junipers)
Temp:  Very hardy.  Standard protection from winter winds &
freezing cycles.
Repotting:  Mine are in large stock pots, so how often is unknown.
Well draining standard soil mixes.  I have had no problems with
any repotting or root pruning.
Styling:  This can be a tough tree to style.  "Fan" pinching like
a Shimpaku will develop better pads, but the foliage has a tendency
to create its own unique pattern.  Finger pinch to avoid brown edges.
Will handle large cuts well.  I have not seen any back budding on a
windswept I created several years ago.
Pests:  I have had no pest problems.

>Chamaecyparis pisifera: Sawara cypress

I like this specimen, but have had great trouble with the couple
I have tried.  Root pruning lead to death twice.  Another was
purchased as a round "ball" with tons of foliage cluttering
the inside.  I cleaned out the junk to let the tree breath.  A
week later several branches looked poor.  I still have the tree,
but is quite shy of being round any longer.  It looks terrible.
They seem to be of the mind that they will live just fine as long
as you leave them alone.  I haven't touched this one since, and
it hasn't changed.

>Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Cyano Veridis': blue moss cypress
>Chamaecyparis thyoides 'Andelyensis Conica': Andelyensis Conica
>  cypress, Andelyensis white cedar
>

These are the ones I hate to hate.  I had a crop of "Andy" cypresses
for a few years.  They continued to die back from the inside, look
horrible constantly, and refused to back bud.  I planted them in a
hidden corner.  As far as I am concerned they are useless.

My experience with blue moss cypress was similar.  

>"This post may be incorporated into the Tree Care FAQ to be republished
>for general distribution."

I hope some of this helps out,
David

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David J. Cushing                              Email: gsbonsai@tiac.net
P.O. Box 4122                             Phone/Fax: (603) 894 - 6832
Windham, NH, USA 03087 
Granite State Bonsai   http://www.tiac.net/users/gsbonsai/gsbonsai.htm
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