Nursery (TIPS) ...Trees In Progress Series by John Ambrose This is the first of a series of articles that I will be writing on nursery stock I purchased for use as bonsai. Many of my earliest purchases, I had no clear idea what I was looking for except that I wanted one particular species or another. As a consequence they now languish somewhere in my back yard as bonsai "wannabees". All of the trees in these articles were acquired at local garden nurseries and were not "pre-bonsai" stock. This first article is on the species Hinoki Cypress variety Templhof, which is a slow growing, often dwarf type of tree. Although it usually does not require winter protection in the Toronto area as a garden bush, it really should get a burlap covering, because it is not that hardy in our worst winters. In particular, cold winds in early spring can dessicate the foliage from the previous year. In turn this dies off and since there is no foliage to draw nutrients up the branch, that branch dies as well. As bonsai, I have yet to see any bud back on the main trunk or before, wherever green foliage still remains on the branches. So I work with this species under the assumption that I will never get bud back, and also that enough foliage must be left on each branch so that the branch itself does not die back. The first two trees in this article were purchased four years ago, for $10 dollars apiece. Since they were on sale because some branches had browned off, I simply took them out of the pot and put them in the ground for a year. (Also, because they are still under warranty). The third tree, was purchased at a nursery in Quebec which the club visited in June of 2002. The first set of 3 pictures below are of one of the trees put in the ground in late in 1999. In the spring of 2001 this tree was potted for the first time. Potting was actually done in mid-March during a warm spell. It was potted indoors, then taken immediately back outside and buried in the same place where it had been all winter. The same procedure was followed with the second tree. I don't recommend repotting this early, ...but I had a busy schedule that spring. I did not take a picture of the tree before its first cutback in May. I did some wiring and bent a few branches. After lengthy scrutinizing I came to the conclusion that I could not find a front and that this tree would make a terrible bonsai. Note: how sparse the top appears. For the rest of the summer the only further work done on it, involved pinching back of the new foliage to induce more growth further along the branches. In the spring of 2002 the tree was repotted into a smaller pot. I did not reduce the rootball as much as I should have and it therefore sits too high in the pot. During the summer while still pinching back new growth, I noticed a possibility for a front for this tree. The picture below was taken in August just before I decided it was time to re-wire and thin out the tree. The following picture was taken after I had decided I was getting bored wiring the same tree day after day. Next spring this tree will get a further cutback on all of its branches and some branches will be removed completely. Note how the top has filled out again after two years, and once again needs to be reduced. The second tree, first put in the ground in 1999, was also potted up in the same manner in the spring of 2001. I was not as brave in the cutting back of this one as with the first tree, so obviously it looks much fuller. The same process of pinching back new buds went on throughout the summer of 2001 and 2002, but I did not repot it in 2002. By August of 2002 the tree had filled out quite a bit. I did not get a picture of the finished wiring, because quite frankly, I never finished the wiring. The tree has too much foliage on it and should have been cut back much further in the spring before its next picture. I will have a picture of its re-wiring in a later article. The third tree, was purchased in June, and was first cut back at the workshop during the Society's June Show. The first picture is after the initial cutback and wiring. The following picture was taken in August after further pinching back and cutting. The trunk style is that of an informal slant, but still needs branch reduction and better placement. Although it is still in the same nursery pot it was purchased in, you can see that I have done more drastic work on this tree, than I did initially on the first two. However, it has also yet to survive a first winter in my yard, so spring will tell whether or not the cutback was too severe. Note how the top has been reduced severely in this tree. Having seen how quickly the crown will fill in on the previous two trees, I have every confidence that the same will happen with this one. During the June show, John Biel mentioned to me that with this species, after pinching back they should be put in shade for two weeks rather than back in full sunlight as they normally prefer. I did this for two of the three trees. The third tree left in full sunlight did, indeed, burn at the tips where they had been pinched. furthermore, the foliage which had previously been covered by foliage higher up and which had now been removed, also burned. So I would suggest that after either cutting back or heavy pinching, that the tree be removed from full sunlight for 2 weeks and allowed to recover. My normal care for this species is watering once every day during the growing period and fertilizing every seventh watering. Generally I use 20-20-20, occasionally alternating with 30-10-10. Most of my trees have very porous bonsai mix which contains little nutrient, so I fertilize throughout the summer, except in periods where the day temperature is above 90 degrees. My overall impression of Hinoki Cypress, is that you really have to look for a good taper to the trunk. I don't think you can make a "very old" looking tree with this particular species from young nursery stock, but you can get some nice looking bonsai forms of rather mature trees with a little bit of work. Nurseries do sell trees with older looking trunks, but here the price range is $200.00 and up.