Yes, I would wait a bit. If I remember correctly, my dwarf baldcypress is a little later to leaf out than most of the other stuff in my yard.
tl³

One more thing to note is that the plant may take a while to get settled in its new home and get into a routine. Also, not all plants break dormancy at the same time, even native plants, so give the tree at least until the end of June before you decide whether the tree is dead or not.
Good luck,
tl³

hard to tell you about the bark thing.. without a picture ...

but i have to tell you ... in my z5 .. those things look dead for a long time in spring ... patience is all i can recommend in that regard ....

i am really surprised you are seeing much of anything this early .. but spring hopes eternal .. or is that... hope springs eternal ... lol

its REALLY REALLY EARLY ... to be coming to any conclusions regarding death .. or life...

ken

Thanks, everyone, I guess I'm just getting anxious. Our snow cover is finally gone and it's supposed to be 50 and sunny today.

I have a very bad case of Spring Fever.

I understand completely. My plant ordering has gotten a little out of hand this year due to spring "anxiousness". I go out and look at the plants just about every day to see if I can see any changes in their buds, etc. (it's still too early here and we are expecting 4" + of snow here in the next 24 to 36 hours). The calendar may say "spring", it's just that someone needs to tell "spring" that it should be here.

You really should not have any problem with your baldcypress in zone 5. Just make sure to water the tree well during its first two years after planting. After that, the tree should only need water during periods of drought.

Are some of your plants really already budding out in Iowa? Wow, that's really early.
Thanks,
tl³

My terminology probably isn't the best - no buds are open yet but the buds are all starting to swell so you can easily see where all the leaves will be.

This wasn't the case a month ago.

I think we also have snow in the forecast.

At least Spring is officially here!

Your cypress should be fine. I live in the southeastern part of Oklahoma and mine does not show any buds until about the last part of April or early May. They are "late budders". Several winters ago, when my cypress was about 20 feet tall, we had an ice storm and how it bent so far and still managed to not break one single limb, I will never know. They are a tough and very beautiful tree. Mine is now up to about 50-55 feet tall and still going. Give it some more time and it will be worth it.

Around here, Baldcypress doesn't leaf out until early June. And the buds before then are almost invisibly small.

Resin

Id wait. it takes a little heat for them to start growing. Since some are just starting to leaf out here in z8 id be surprised if they were leafing out in z5. ALso surprised it bent badly in the ice. Cypress wood is really hard.

iahawkz4,
I'm in Z8 and mine have not shown any evidence of budding as of last week. I normally expect just about everything else to bud out before Bald Cypress does and that will probably be mid to late April this year.
Don't know if your tree will survive or not. But I had two 1 yr. old seedlings I direct planted by creek during a drought. The cows bit and stomped on both til even the stubs disappeared. I wrote them off as gone. The next year both of them resprouted and are growing again. I would wait til at least July before declaring it DEAD. If it sprouts below the barkless strip then cut off the dead area and go with the new growth.

Here some BC are in full leaf and others are still totally dormant. In general those in cultivated settings are leafing out earlier than in native stands. Also, younger trees are leafing out sooner than older ones. But, these are just generalities and alot of variation is seen. Indeed, T. mucronatum leafed out very early compared to T. distichum.

Strange. I found several BC that have already leafed out.

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I have some montezuma cypress that leafed out pretty early and the BC I showed isn't very far behind. There are a lot of BCs that haven't really put on a lot of leaf growth like this though even in Houston.

the better question for lou ...

WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN THE MEDIAN OF THE FREEWAY ...

jeez .. lol ... just snapping a picture for us???

ken

Yeah yeah I know... I just saw it and decided to pull over for a couple pictures and tagged it if I ever want to collect seeds from it if it turns out to be nice looking one after a few months. I'm on the lookout for BC that can tolerate alkaline soil with no problem. A lot of BC trees planted around here don't look all too happy. I found one with great green color and dense foliage right a couple miles from me. Got about 4 seedlings out of 200+ seeds from that tree so far...

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that I've seen so far around my town that sits on top of limestone bedrock... Not sure how much of topsoil it's growing in but I have like 2 inches of topsoil on top of limestone rubbles two miles away from that tree.

If one wasnt showing life here Id start to worry.

About the alkaline soil thing.....I've read your posts before about alkaline soil and taxodium. They are supposed to be light green not dark green, at least all the ones Ive seen, including native stands, are not very dark green. Id worry if they were yellowm but not light green. Id have a tissue analysis done if you think one is chlorotic. This alkaline tolerant variety you spotted might just be a darker colored foliage variant. Analysis of the tissue is the only way to know if one in fact had a deficiency.

Im scoping some native trees for witches brooms....I saw one, but must have been 60-70 feet up. At first I thought It was a birds nest but I looked with binoculars and its a broom. It looked like a climbable tree, but Im a little hesitant....If you climb it this next winter Ill share the scion wood :)

Will you be willing to pay for my hospital bill if I fall off? ;) If you drove around my town, most looked a bit yellowish toward the end of the summer. That's why this cypress caught my attention big time and apparently a professor at SFASU too because he asked for the seeds. I dropped by a local nursery and asked the manager about the seed source of their bald cypress and they came from east Texas where the soil is acidic. I only know of one nursery in the entire Texas that sells BC grown from seeds collected in Central Texas and that's in San Marcos. I'm guessing nearly all of the BC planted around here are east Texas BC. I checked the size of those BC seeds and they are pretty large compared to MC and that bald cypress with dark green color (in between MC and BC; not sure how it compares to Central Texas BC).

lou
The Texas Forestry Service this past year advertised about 5 species of trees sourced from central Tx. They were higher $ than their normal price and sold out rather quickly.
While my BC have not yet leafed out, I have noticed several others, also planted close to bridges or other structures as in the pictures above, that have already leafed out. Wonder if the building or bridge is radiating heat out and creating a little "micro-climate" area?

Taxodium distichum 'Secrest' on high standard 3/26/08.

The great impostor. Always gives the impression it has expired. I don't expect to see any green till late May. Sure had me fooled the first year till I scratched a limb and saw green.

Dave
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Scotjute-

The BC in the median was the only one with visible leaf growth from a distance as I was driving down the highway at 70 MPH over a week ago. The rest of BC, you wouldn't know they were fixing to leaf out unless you walk up close to them. If the microclimate was the case, rest of the BCs would have that kind of leaf growth. Probably a combination of genetics and microclimate. I had considered getting those BC from Central Texas from Texas Service but I waited too long... Oh well. Maybe next winter or simply drive down there and do some collecting. A lot cheaper that way.

Following up from my original post - my Bald Cypress is alive and well!

It was absolutely the last plant in my landscape to show signs of life. Everyone was correct about the Bald Cypress being late to green up.

Better late than never.