When you have a good trunk to work with and the goal is to improve the branches, you’re working with a tree in the middle stages of development. For pines with large trunks, this stage can last five to ten years or more, depending on your goals for the silhouette. The two pines below were […]
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Should I fertilize my decandled pines in summer?
To determine if a decandled pine needs fertilizer in summer, I check to see how the summer buds look. If they’re strong, I hold off on the fertilizer until later in the growing season (usually September or October). If the buds are modest or small, I consider whether or not the pine looks good in […]
Review: Mastering Shohin Japanese Black Pine Bonsai
Eric Schrader and the team behind Bonsaify.com released an online course this week titled, “Mastering Shohin Japanese Black Pine Bonsai: A Complete Guide from Seedling to Show Tree.” I reviewed a pre-release version of the course and am happy to report that it’s a great starting point for anyone looking for support in their journey […]
Field-grown black pine progression – part 2
In last week’s post we left off in 2017 – about 10-15 years into the development of a black pine that was field-grown at Lone Pine Gardens in Sebastopol, California. Here’s the tree two years later. March, 2019 Because the tree hadn’t been wired in several years, the large gap between the lower and upper […]
Field-grown black pine progression – part 1
I’ve been waiting a long time to share the progress on one of my black pines, and now is a great time for it! Let’s start with the back story. In 1993 – by coincidence it’s the year I started growing bonsai – Kathy Shaner started a batch of black pines from seed that ended […]