Chamaecyparis "progression" and future directions?????

I rescued this plant from a dried out planter in March of '09. It was in sad shape. Pic 1 is a month later after I had decided it might survive the rescue.



It looked pretty bad over the winter, but then got a flush of new growth in the spring. Pic 2 is in June of this year.



Now, going into its second winter as a clump-style "bonsai" it has a touch of fall color (in preparation, I'm sure for its grubby-looking winter foliage) and is starting to maybe look like something.



I know little about this genus of plants, and had never considered it for a bonsai. It still looks too leggy to me. I was told that it does not bud back, though I seem to have gotten a bit of new growth down the trunks though severe pinching of the top through the summer just past. Can anyone tell me if I have any hopes of cutting this back be 1/3 and getting any growth lower down?

Any suggestions for further development will be gratefully appreciated. Or even just comments. This tree is totally foreign to me, since I've never been too partial to either the type or the style it had to be grown in.

Incidentally, this is the most phototropic tree I've ever owned. The tops of all branches are turned toward the sun with 10 minutes of turning it on the table. If you look closely at the last picture you may be able to guess where the sun was before I brought it into the sunroom for the photo.

Hi Jim

Sorry mate, they only bud from green wood. You can hard prune and wire in the Autumn, but dont remove more than 1/3 of the foliege if you do. They will develop ramification on the green wood, and you can pinch throughout the growing season.

They like a lot of light and will need to be thinned out regularly to stop internal foliege dieback. They air-layer very readily (have a go at aerial roots? It would be different, otherwise go for the clump).

I think you have a C. lawsonii, proably one of those ornamental 'golden globe' types. Foliege goes a bit brown in the winter as it stops producing chlorophyll, that's completely natural and it will green up in the spring.

Apparently Lenz has grafted foliege on them, but I don't think that's necessary here.

Rich

Thanks for the info. I'd about given up on getting an answer.

I think I'll continue to work on a clump; maybe a few fewer trunks?

I'd come to the conclusion that it was one of those "golden" ornamentals. I'd normally stay away from those (and probably this species, too), but like most of our pets, this is a rescue so you take what you get.

Thanks again.

You could thin out some of the trunks, although I quite like the number you have now.

It's hard to say from a 2D image, but the 2 on right side are a bit distracting, is there some way to tease them apart a bit? The the long, untapered stright one in the middle is distracting too, don't know if you could wire it to add a bit of movement or trim it down.

Cheers

There's actually 3 on the right, but they're not really that close together when you can see the separation. I'll try to make it clearer. I had wired that middle one, but it didn't seem to take. I'll try again.

Thanks for the suggestions.

JimLewis wrote:There's actually 3 on the right, but they're not really that close together when you can see the separation. I'll try to make it clearer. I had wired that middle one, but it didn't seem to take. I'll try again.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Yes, the wood is really springy, you may need to leave the wire on longer than usual for it to 'take'. The wood thickens fast too, although vigorous chamae. soon outgrow wire scars.

Cheers