I planted 8 bald cypress near my lake 7 years ago. Although they have all survived, they haven't grown well. I planted them in East TX red clay, and they don't seem to like that as well as the black clay here in the Dallas area.
Knowing what I know now, I probably would have planted them during the fall water drop, and then had them semi-submerged for a greater part of the year.
I can't believe I'm quoting myself from 10 years ago, but I was wrong. The 8 I planted near the pond have grown extremely well, and have turned into beautiful trees that have survived several extremely rough droughts. I've since planted another 7 in the water, and those are slowly growing at the same pace as the first bunch, so I expect them to well also. 4 of the 7 were planted in the pond, and they were planted with the water line just below the bottom limbs.
RAH, I've now had 4 of the cypress stumped by beavers, and all 4 survived. One, which was one of the original 8, has recovered and is approximately 70-80 percent of the size of the others. One in the pond has grown split trunks, and I decided to leave it alone. I've never seen one with double trunks, so we'll see how it goes. I wound up loosely wrapping all the cypress trunks with chicken wire, and all damage stopped. Very little effort saved them all.
Stressless and others, bald cypress do draw a good bit of water out of ponds, but for me, they're worth it. Beautiful trees.
