Bonsai Tonight

Refining a corkbark black pine

Refining old bonsai isn’t always a quick process – especially when the bonsai is a corkbark black pine. With brittle branches, the variety does not lend itself to dramatic restyling. I’ve been fortunate that the pine below has been healthy enough to decandle three years in a row. Many corkbark pines need a year to recover after decandling which further slows progress.

I talked briefly with Akio Kondo about the tree in a workshop this past winter. He encouraged me to continue refining it and removed a few unnecessary shoots. Then, with a big smile, he said, “Wire it.” Only now getting around to the task, I finished wiring just as the new needles began to emerge from the elongating candles.

The tree is still in an awkward stage. At best, I can hope to remove some of the “lumps” in the silhouette while I wait for new shoots to develop. It’s slow work, but I’m happy with the progress to date.

Front – before	Front – after
Right – before	Right – after
Left – before	Left – after
Back – before	Back – after

The work began with removing the old wire. As the tree had grown quite dense, this turned out to be a chore. I worked with a pliers to help with the branches between which my hands wouldn’t fit.

Unwiring copper wire (looks like 14 gauge)

I secure the wire and the branch with my left hand

And remove the wire with the pliers, one loop at a time

The wire gets recycled

I found a few places where old wire had cut in. Swelling occurs quickly in cork pines, and tight wire accelerates this. As long as the wire doesn’t cut in too deep, the natural corking will disguise the marks within a year or two.

Wire marks

As the pine was in bloom when I began wiring, I removed the pollen cones to avoid making a powdery mess.

Spring shoot with male, or pollen cones

As you can see from the detail shots below, the branches are very early in their development. Some areas of the tree, like the one pictured below, consist of parallel shoots with buds along the length of each shoot.

Young branches

Other areas consist of short, stubby shoots. When these areas develop further, I’ll have far more options for creating an attractive silhouette.

Short shoots

Once more mature branches are in place, I can focus on improving the tree’s balance. And somewhere along the way, I’ll be able to show it again.

Cleaning up a corkbark black pine

The yatsabusa corkbark black pine below is almost 17 years old. I’m primarily growing it as a source for future grafting projects, but it’s become a fun project. I pulled the old needles and removed a few shoots that were growing in dense areas. That should do it for this year. Soon I’ll start fertilizing the tree and before I know it the spring growth will fill in the gaps.

Yatsabusa corkbark Japanese black pine – Fall 2010

After cutback

As the photo makes clear, the tree is a bit two dimensional. The current shape of the tree emerged during a BIB monthly meeting in August, 2009. Akio Kondo, visiting from Japan, cut back unnecessary growth and pulled old needles in a stretch of maybe five minutes. It was remarkable – not a needle was bent (see “Akio Kondo critique” for details).

Akio Kondo and Boon Manakitivipart size up the tree

To break up the monotony of the flat branches, I’m thinking of selecting a new front, about 50 degrees left of center. This gives the tree some depth and downplays the similarity between the first two branches on the left.

Possible new front

I’m hoping the tree will grow much larger in the coming years. Corkbark black pines can make dramatic bonsai and can generate great bark in far less time than comparable non-cork bark pines. It may be another 5 or 10 years before I can show it, but I expect the tree to provide me with plenty of entertainment in the mean time.