2001: I purchased this blue moss cypress at an auction that our club had. It was not in the best of health.
The soil looked like plain old garden soil, a lot of clay. It was late in the summer so I waited until the following spring to repot. The exposed roots were also a problem I had to take care of. I will scallop out places around the trunk in designated areas and apply root hormone. I will then pot it lower in the same training pot and pack spagnum moss around the scalloped area. Then place a little soil on top of the moss to hold it in place. This will not only hold down the moss but also help keep it
moist for root development. (lets hope anyway).

 

 

2002: I removed most of the bad
soil and worked on the root problem. It
was then potted lower. Now I will let it grow freely for another year checking the rooting progress now and then.

2003: It seems to be rooting well so I
did some initial styling and in the
spring of 2004 I will get it into a bonsai
pot.

 

2004 spring This is what it looked like today when I removed it from the pot. You can see that there were tons of small feeder roots. Keeping my fingers crossed must have worked. I combed out the lower roots and pruned them up to almost the ground layer area. I then carefully combed out the top roots.

I turned the tree upside down and cut off all the big ugly roots that were below the layer and applied more hormones and potted it into its new home.

 

2004 And this is what I ended up
with.

Now just some more pinching and
thinning and it is ready for show