I can't make any suggestions, but I did want to say "Oh my goodness that is SO cute!"

I wish we could grow those here. I had a dwarf one for four years that I grew in a pot for the summer then I would put it in the corner of my raised veggie bed for the winter to protect it. But it bit the dust this year. So sad!

Thanks @popmama (Colorado, USDA z5) - I hail from Anaconda MT - mile high & at base of Rocky mountains & an 89 day growing season! I know your quirky weather challenges! Over the past few years I’ve developed a love for conifers - their textures, colors & usually ease of care. I have added many dwarfs to our front yard scape. I’ve been adding them to my pots for the same reasons. You may notice that the plants in the 3 pots in my pics have changed over the 2 years. I do tend to move things on but I do want this hinoki to stay put - no more room in yard.

I grow a bunch of dwarf conifers in containers, mostly (but not entirely) Hinokis. Depending on the size of the container, I repot and root prune every 3-5 years. When is a bit of a toss up :-) In my climate, sometime usually in late winter but before any new growth appears for the season, but really whenever I have the time. IIRC, you are in a similar area/climate to me, so take your pick!

I generally take off around an inch off the sides and bottom of the rootball.

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) Yes, your recall is correct - I am in Vancouver, so south of you. Our first light rain of many dry months just started about an hour ago so air quality issue from smoke is finally moving out of lethal zone! Thank you for reply. When you say ”repot” do you mean pot up or change potting medium in existing pot? This Hinoki has been in this pot close to 5 years but I’ve lost the plant tag that I would have noted date. I really want to keep this plant in this pot long term. Seems like doing that might require Bonsai like methods every few years? Or, is that a Don Quixote type wish?

Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Filicoides'? I have one in the ground, but it's the one that shows yellow new growth instead of green. I wish I'd have bought one like yours.

These plants need careful pruning (if they must be pruned - better not to). When you shorten a long branch, you should find a lower order branch growing in as close to the same direction as the main branch's leader. If you shorten the branch to a random point. you'll most often notice after pruning the branch can make a 90* turn (or nearly so).

Would like to keep tree in existing pot. Is root pruning a way to do that? If we assume that the plant's level of vitality is your foremost concern, root pruning would be essential to keeping a plant in the same plant for many years. Eventually, though, you'll need a larger pot.

The reason root congestion is so limiting lies in the fact that as roots thicken, the number of fine hair roots that do all the plant's heavy lifting (in terms of water/ nutrient uptake) decrease. Eventually, you end up with a pot filled with roots that serve primarily as plumbing and anchorage; whereas, the plant would be better served if most of the large roots were removed to create real estate that can be colonized by fine rootage.

Since we know root congestion will eventually weaken a plant severely enough that pathogens or insect herbivory can easily finish the job, we can both see and say that root congestion can sap almost 100% of a plants ability to grow and defend itself. In a perfect world, the ideal root-pruning session would have us pruning as hard as possible w/o killing the tree or having parts of the tree die. The more experienced you become at the process, the more comfortable you'll become removing more than just a few roots. For now, it would be best to limit yourself to removing the bottom 1/3 of the root mass with a pruning saw, then removing a good portion of the soil and an additional measure of thick roots not attached to the base of the trunk, then adding new grow medium which is physically as close to possible to what remains on the root mass after you work it. When you repot this way, you'll se what you think is a very big growth spurt. In reality, it's not a growth spurt at all. It's simply the tree returning to something closer to the vitality with which it would have been growing all along if not for the root congestion.

Al

@tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) Al Al, Thank you for your very detailed tutorial! I’ve read it several times, looked at the pictures, and I understand the steps better with each reading. I have printed your directions to use when I undertake this project. I’ll aim for any dry, not freezing day around February based on @gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) experience for my climate.

I went outside to feel around the sides of the pot for the tag I was sure I kept but all I found was lots of fine roots. I’m now sifting through my collection of plant tags looking for it. I have many tags in several bags labeled by garden section. The name you gave, Filicoides, sounds familiar so my bet is you’ve nailed it! Mine does alsohave the yellow new growth in spring & summer but it's now faded to green. I favor the yellow & have it in as many of my plants as I can so I know that why I have this particular plant!

Thank you again for your reply. Its a huge help. I knew there was a bit more to this root pruning than whacking off the bottom half & plopping plant back into pot with fresh medium!

Many thanks to Al for jumping in with that great explanation ! (and much more detailed than mine would be :-)) I am not as brave or as experienced as Al so I tend to be less aggressive with any root pruning. But I do remove and replace as much old media as possible when I do.

I apologize for my short/abrupt remarks lacking detail but I have sticky keyboard issues on my laptop and typing is a PITA!!

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) No apologies please! I respect your input & knowledge on a wide variety of subjects in the botanical world which I think comes from your professional experience. @tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) added another layer of detail that I appreciate since I am a details person & have much to learn about plant maintenance. I think Al has a specific interest in container planting & Bonsai & is a specialist / expert. I'm heartened to read that you ”tend to be less aggressive with any root pruning” as your statement gives me the courage I need to attempt this project! My goal really is to keep this plant in this pot for years so I’ll need to have a result like the pics Al provided. I bought this hinoki in a 4” pot so not a big $$ investment & you know how plentiful Iseli Nursery conifers are here in WA if I need to start over. BTW, soon after I retired I signed right up for the Master Gardener class offerred through WSU here. My take aways were, 1. learning how to research as no one has all the answers, 2. Right plant, right place, & 3. IPM. Great fun though I didn’t pay much attention to fruiting plants chapters as I’m all about the ornamentals & more recently dwarf conifers.

@KW PNW Z8 - If you keep temperate deciduous plants under shelter over winter to keep them from freezing, the best time to repot your false cypress would be about the time leaf buds start to break on the deciduous plants under shelter, in spring. This will be about 2 weeks later than you would repot deciduous trees (2 weeks prior to budswell). If you have to look to the landscape for clues, it would be about the time aspens start to show a bit of greening.

I suggest that, come spring before you dive into the repot , you stop back and I'll provide some more specific directions and provide you with some tips that will help the session go smoothly and shorten the recovery period - usually about 2-3 weeks for conifers.

Al

@tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) Thank you Al. I’ll definitely take you up on your offer of more guidance! I have made a calendar reminder to come back to you. You know, I’m not sure there are any Aspens in this area. Or, I’ve not seen any. There were a lot of white birch but they’ve been decimated by the birch borer beetles. I know what Aspen are from my growing up years in Anaconda ,MT which is at 5,800 elevation and there were “clones”/groves of them everywhere. My mom told me they were ”quaking Aspens” - & that it had to do with how their leaves look when being rustled by breezes. She loved them so I do remember them. I live at less than 200’ elevation now so things are much warmer in winter! The only temperate plants I bring inside in fall are my Jades & Sansevierias that live on my west facing front porch so that's not much help either. But, I take your point that February is too early. I’ll wait until some of my japanese maples show some bud swelling or I see the spring green haze of deciduous trees thinking about leafing out. Our weather seems to have no set pattern anymore, thank you climate change! We sometimes have no snow all winter but do have ice from rain & just below freezing night temps. This past mid April, after many trees were heavy with new leaf out, we had snow - a sudden heavy snowfall - 6“ in places & very wet snow. It was gone two days later but maple tree branches were still hanging low because of the soft wood with sap running & heavy load of new leaves. Then at the other end of weather we’ve experienced unprecedented heat ”domes” Maybe you heard about our couple days of 115 F summer of ’21? We topped out at 105 F this past summer. Scary.

Sorry - I thought you currently lived in MT, which is why the reference to aspen and winter protection. I've spent some time there in the aspen quakies in the foothills of the Gravely and Bridger Ranges and at higher elevations; also on the slopes and in the valleys between the Beartooth and Crazy Mountains. If my wife could hear the siren call of the mountains like I do, we'd be living somewhere in MT today. I absolutely LOVE it there; and, I don't mind winter a bit.

The maples should serve as a good guide insofar as when you repot. TTYL.

Al

@tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) Al, my family moved to Ketchikan, AK when I was 12 & I was interested to find that it was actually warmer in winter in that ’banana belt’ of southeastern AK than MT winters. There was however, that little detail of 13’ average rainfall (not a typo - it is 13 feet!). I spent much time in Anaconda as an adult because my parents moved back there at retirement. One year my husband & I delayed our return drive home to WA because that day in December, Wisdom MT had the honor of being the coldest place in the contiguous 48 states at -40! Wisdom is 42 miles from Anaconda. I also learned, after developing my interest in plants & yardscape, that Anaconda has a 89 day growing season… and that altitude! Breathing became a challenge…..I could go on but I think you understand why I chose WA as my home! Sort of the best of all climates for me.. While my husband was in the USAF for a long career, I worried that we’d be sent to a Northern Tier base where all the Strtegic Air Command bases were! You, however, being from another cold state, would likley make the adjustment to MT just fine! 😊

Kathy

when i came to understand it all this way.. all of a sudden it was like all teh lights came on and the curtains and blinds were throw wide open ..

every plant has an annual growth rate ...

bonsia is a root pruning system wherein you retard or slow down that annual growth by cutting off most of the roots .. [and then a bunch of aesthetic stuff thats isnt important here ..]

sooo .. if your plant grows a foot per year.. it apparent that it isnt going to live long in any pot.. unless you do some intense root pruning.. the more often you do it.. the longer it can stay potted ... but you cant take a plant that is supposed to be 10 feet tall in 10 years.. and just root prune it every third or 4th year ...

and do understand.. canopy pruning does not accomplish the same thing... its all about the roots ...

i have lost a lot of posts recently.. so i am hitting send often.. so i never lose everything.. i have no clue what this will do to your inbox.. if you are receiving replies by email ..

now.. if some spring i cut off a lot of roots.. i would NEVER put the plant in full sun ...crikey dude.. it doesnt have any roots ... so full bright shade at all times..

sooo.. perhaps with this very simplified reasoning.. you can more fully understand what the others are telling you ...

ken

Thanks very much @ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 Yes, this thread has definitely had many lightbulb moments for me about how to accomplish my goal - or if I’ll be able to accomplish it! I hadn’t thought about my Hinoki needing protection from sun after severe root pruning but I do understand your point! Because I have no where else to plant this little guy, I’m willing to experiment with leaving it in the pot & location it’s in. The location does receive several hours of southern mid afternoon sun but it’s also well watered from the sprinklers for the brass buttons ground cover the pot sits in. Pot has drainage holes & also is elevated on big pot feet. I’m understanding from @tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) that if I prune this guy I’ll need to exercise great care especially if I’m wanting to limit height & width. It’s sounding more like a Bonsai type project…I have some of that wire for training plants to grow a certain direction so maybe that’s a possibility. I’m hoping I come across the plant tag in the pot because I’m not convinced it’s a Fernspray / Filicoides. I have another chamaecyparis in a much larger pot that I think is that & is totally different shape. we’ll see what happens early next spring! Something to look forward to.

BTW Ken, I thought of you yesterday - I dug up a couple of mini hostas to divide & relocate and I seriously thought about throwing them down on my driveway - just to make sure they make it!

@tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) Just seeing your newest post here today. Really do appreciate your additional points of clarification. I am looking forward to spring when I can start my overall pruning project. Earlier this year I’d replaced the plants in the 2 other pots in this grouping which you can see in my first picture. The Fernspray Gold Hinoki in the smaller gold pot is now living in a much larger pot in a far corner & I don’t mind it growing larger. The golden barberry in the back red pot now lives in a friend’s yard. The 2 replacements are Chamaecyparis obtusa Butter Ball - growth rate 1” - 3” year & Jean’s Dilly Alberta Spruce 2”- 4” year. Though they have lots of room to grow in their pots, I’ll be able to apply my lessons learned from my spring root pruning project to those 2 new plants.