VALAVANIS DWARF CYPRESS DEVELOPMENT

In 1970 I got lost going to a nursery in New Jersey and got stuck in a rotary which I did not know existed. While driving around and around I suddenly discovered a witch's broom on an Atlantic White Cedar, also called Atlantic White Cypress, Chamaecyparis thyroids. Naturally I stopped and climbed to the top of the tree (I was younger then) to prune a few branches for cuttings since it had a dense compact growth habit with fine foliage.

I successfully rooted the cuttings and watched how they developed. Many were given away to my students, collectors of rare plants and nurserymen. Some were also sold at bonsai conventions. Many years later I was at the closing auction of Mayfair Nursery in Nichols, New York and I was looking around during the auctioning. Suddenly I heard "Chamaecyparis thoyoides 'Valavanis' and looked up to see one of my cuttings being auctioned. Apparently the nurseryman named the plant after me since I introduced it to the horticultural trade.

Many hundreds of cutting were taken since it rooted easily. Robert Kretzer, one of my students took my cutting seminar in the early 1970s and rooted a few Valavanis Dwarf Cypress. In 2010 he moved into a smaller home and I got one of his cuttings he was training. In May 2010 I reshaped the bonsai and transplanted it. The newly shaped bonsai was occasionally pinched and the wire was removed before it cut into the bark.

In July 2012 I reshaped the bonsai and transplanted it for my upcoming new book. Quite a difference two years makes.

Bill



May 2010 Before Shaping


May 2010 After Shaping



May 2011



July 2012 Before Shaping



July 2012 After Shaping



July 2012 After Transplanting

hi

that is excelent - from a pile of pom poms to a really nice tree. Doesn't it grow foliage fast ! Nice story too.

cheers Marcus

Very fine work, Bill. It shows what puts the "art" in the art of bonsai.

Zach

Wow, great transformation! And how cool is it to get one of your original babies back?!?

R

Just by restructuring each of the foliage pads, the tree looks so natural and awesome. A really beautiful tree. Also, now the tree will grow so much better.

Rob

Very nice Bill , great work.

Very nice, Bill. Your tree has a natural elegance.

Hats off to you Mr.Valavanis,

really beautiful, and as was mentioned before - very elegant.
Thanks for showing.
Khaimraj

Amazing transformation and tree! Thanks for sharing, Bill.

Just wonderfull...
No other words to discribe it

Bill, very nice job and an interesting story. You reap what you sow..

It's an interesting variety too.

Very inspiring, Bill. It looks like Atlantic White Cedar can backbud closer to the trunk more readily than other Chamys. In your experience is this the case?

it is a nice story, inspiring, and good progression

now the tree is in harmony, but getting full/ripe in leaf, compared to the thickness of the trunk. I guess from now on you'll work on containing fhe foliage mass within those boundaries (as it looks now)? If the 'green' grows much more, it will gradually begin looking like a young tree again. But that could be your plan offcourse, and then again restyle it or bring it back to where it is now?

Great proof of backbudding Bill. As yves71277 mention just keep maintain top proportion to trunk size. Great work. BTW what is the size of tree?

Nice work!

Bill,

Are you rooting any cuttings of this tree? If so, maybe you could offer them for sale in the Spring one of these years.

I'd purchase one.