I believe there is more than one type of bald cypress but the biggest complaint I've heard about them is their knees.
This makes mowing very hard.

They are pretty trees but it's not one I'd choose due to this problem.

I think that is the key difference between Central Texas and East Texas BC beside the abilities to tolerate alkaline soil and better drought tolerant. If the ground is dry enough, planted on the sloped area, etc, the chances they won't produce knees. I talked to someone in another thread and this person said that the ones at Garner Park off Frio Rio river do not seem to produce knees at all. I looked at this cypress in my town which appears to be the oldest one and the largest one by far and I didn't see any knees. If it was such a problem, why are they being planted all over DFW area? The problem is that some of them look TERRIBLE as if they are having hard time in alkaline soil.

it's true that they don't grow knees along river banks, at least not very often. But I have seen some grow knees in landscape situations that were not particularly wet. So I think it probably has something to do with oxygen and drainage.

In San Antonio, where our soil can be pretty alkaline, I never see chlorotic trees and they do great in landscapes. But, interestingly enough, I was just in Austin this past week and saw a couple that were unhealthy yellow. So it's probably a matter of just how alkaline your soil is. The Ph might just be making one thing (magnesium, manganese, iron, whatever) unavailable in your soil.

Bald cypress is probably the best big tree for many parts of Texas, at least those that get a decent amount of rain. I was thinking about guerilla gardening some into all of these retention ponds that are being built around shopping centers. Seems like perfect places and a nice big tree might mitigate the eyesore......

Plants77,

Lowes and Home Depot in Austin gets BC from nurseries in East Texas (I checked the tag showing the name of the nursery growing BCs) so I wouldn't be surprised that they do badly in alkaline soil if they got the seeds from east Texas source. I don't know about San Antonio since I don't go down there very often. My wife's family is from Austin so I go there quite often. I did see some BCs that aren't doing good there though so I just assumed they came from east part of Texas.

This is the picture of cypress in Midlothian sitting on limestone bedrock.

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You could say that this tree got me interested in cypress trees last year and started looking more into it. I've learned some interesting stuff about it.

David,

Thanks. I will check that place out. I believe it is on the State Fair ground (Discovery Garden?) and we get free tickets to the State Fair every year so we probably will try and check them out.

I found a natural swimming hole that is surrounded by huge bald cypress somewhere west of Austin and I happen to be heading in that direction Monday so might as well check it out!

I play softball at a park that has probably 50 bald cypress trees with tons of cones. I could get you some late september early october. Surely these are the central texas variety since they are growing fine...Alternatively if I go to guadalupe river sp this fall I could get plenty of cones. Those are native trees, old and huge.

Plants77,

Thanks! I appreciate it. I put a reminder on my calender to contact you when the time is near to make some arrangement to have the comes mailed to me.

Thanks again!

Lou

The BC seems to be one of the more commonly planted landscape trees in DFW. The only ones I've ever seen with knees are along Trinity River concrete canals. The knees come up near the bottom where the concrete starts. Its' as if the roots go to the concrete and then surface. Also, the ones I see that appear to be chlorotic are also usually right against 2-3 story glass office buildings (relflective heat) or in a 5'x5' parking island. They have tiny root zones and must be terribly stressed. Over 95% of the BCs I see are doing great despite this weather.

Thanks! I appreciate it. I put a reminder on my calender to contact you when the time is near to make some arrangement to have the comes mailed to me.

sure Are you anywhere near a native population of beech trees? I would like to get some beechnuts and try to grow some from seed. I could buy them, but who knows where they came from, because the tree has a very large distribution. I just want the Texas plants.

I remember seeing BC planted in front of the World Trade Center in Dallas. How are they doing now? Haven't been there for a few years ....

I have five BC's in various locations on my property, and they ALL have knees ---- lots and lots of knees. They are not planted by water.

We have a BC planted in '82 that's never developed knees. The cones can be a bit messy, though we probably wouldn't notice except it's next to the driveway.

If there's a fall swap in Ft. Worth, I'd be glad to bring some of the cones, if anyone wants them.