Working on another Bald Cypress

One that I collected has 5 genuine knees, about ¾” dia and 1-1/ 2” tall and one of those knees is a double. It also has one root loop about two inches up and back down into the soil. All this is within 10 inches of the trunk and on more than one side. I did not do a root cleaning to determine if its all connected. Base is only 3-1/2” wide, I cut the top at 33” high, 1” dia.

The largest base I collected is 8-1/2 “, top is cut at 36”, 1-1/2 “ dia.

I have not seen any photos of natural knees on a bonsai, are there any? other than make shift root loops.

I looked at several hundred small trees, this is the only one with small knees, one other had 1 knee but it was about 4" dia, as was the base of the tree also

tlynn wrote:One that I collected has 5 genuine knees, about ¾” dia and 1-1/ 2” tall and one of those knees is a double. It also has one root loop about two inches up and back down into the soil. All this is within 10 inches of the trunk and on more than one side. I did not do a root cleaning to determine if its all connected. Base is only 3-1/2” wide, I cut the top at 33” high, 1” dia.

The largest base I collected is 8-1/2 “, top is cut at 36”, 1-1/2 “ dia.

I have not seen any photos of natural knees on a bonsai, are there any? other than make shift root loops.

I looked at several hundred small trees, this is the only one with small knees, one other had 1 knee but it was about 4" dia, as was the base of the tree also

Sounds like you found some nice trees:) I have certainly seen bonsai with natural knees but I would say it is uncommon. Where I collect it is difficult to find trees with knees in scale for bonsai or near enough to the trunk. I have collected a couple in which I "thought" the knees were part of the tree I was collecting only to find out that they were not.

I appreciate the fact that you have to look at so many trees to find ones worth collecting...I figure where I collect...in spite of the fact that there are 100s of thousands of BC..if not millions... and at best only 1/10 of 1% of the trees offer the characteristics for which I am looking....I am afraid that most people have no appreciation for how difficult it is from multiple perspectives to find really good material for collecting!!

Good luck to you!! I hope in a week or two they are covered in new buds!!!
John