Bald Cypress #1

In 2021, my wife and I were having lunch beneath a big beautiful tree at a county fair. A passerby noticed us admiring the tree, and kindly informed us that it was a bald cypress and was one of the only conifers to lose its needles each year. Less than a year later, we decided to plant one in our backyard.

The original bald cypress that inspired us to plant one in our backyard.

2022

I planted this 6-foot tall / 2-inch diameter ball and burlap bald cypress on 9/18/22. I watered daily (about 3 gallons) with a water bag for the first two weeks, then transitioned to watering every two to three days for the rest of the autumn. 

Our bald cypress, planted on 9/18/22 at about 6' tall and 2" in diameter.

Since we have deer in our backyard on a daily basis, I put up some fencing shortly after planting. However, while I've seen some nipped branches, they mostly ignore it.

10/19/22: Showing its russet autumn colors about one month after planting (and the makeshift fence to protect from deer).

2023

Growth of about 1 foot after one full year. Pictured here on 10/6/23 (where did my mulch ring go???). Continued watering pretty faithfully throughout the summer, once or twice per week. May have used the water bag initially, but eventually transitioned to a 5-gallon bucket with a small hole at the bottom, which is now my preferred method for watering trees.

2024

Pictured on 10/23/24 standing at an estimated 10 feet (forgot to take an official measurement), so about 3+ feet of growth for the year. A lot of that happened near the end of the season too, if I recall correctly. That may have been, at least in part, to expanding the mulch ring. Fencing is off and deer have mostly stayed away. Watered maybe once per week, definitely not as much as the prior year. 

In mid-August, a tornado came through less than a mile from my house. I watched from my kitchen window as all my trees literally bent over horizontally, and thought for sure they were all goners. Thankfully, didn't lose a single one. That may be why it's looking a little ragged though.

2025

Pictured on 11/1/25 standing just shy of 13 feet. Growth of at least 3 feet, finally looking like a legitimate tree. A sign of good health, it's kept most of its needles much later than in past years and looks absolutely beautiful in its autumn color. (No tornadoes this year, so that helped too.) 

Hardly watered it at all until mid-summer when we started to get drought-like conditions. However, had no concern about the health of the tree, just wanted to get as much growth as I could. And only watered it once per week at most unless we had rain. 

I pruned quite a bit over the winter to encourage good branching structure, and plan to do the same this winter. It tends to lean a bit to the left due to lack of protection from the prevailing wind, so pruning may help that.