Bald Cypress

Posted by on May 12, 2009 at 11:53 am.
Bald Cypress

Bald Cypress

I love this tree.  Do I say that about everything?  I mean it about the Bald Cypress.  I think it is gorgeous.  It has the shape of an evergreen with lacy leaves, but it’s not.  It turns a beautiful reddish-brown color in the fall before losing all it’s leaves for the winter.  It is always such a thrill to see the bright green new growth in the spring.

The entire reason we planted the bald cypress was to try to drain a very swampy area of our backyard.  The bald cypress is the same tree that you will find in the swamps of Louisiana.  It is the tree that will develop what are called “knees” (roots that come up above the soil surface) if it is growing in high water areas.  It is, however, surprisingly drought tolerant once it’s established.  We rarely actually water this area of the yard even in the height of the summer. It does have a susceptibility to bag worms, but we pick off the ones we can reach and dunk them in soapy water and the others we leave to attract beneficial wasps, birds and other predatory insects.

An added bonus is that the Bald Cypress is a Texas native.  Ours is about 5 years old now and began as a 2 foot whip.  It is now approximately 30 feet tall!  we actually have two Bald Cypress… just after we planted one, Travis came home from school with one that he started from seed.  That one is now about 6 feet tall.  Both of these are still small for a cypress though.  They will grow to about 80 feet tall.

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