Two years ago, I showed a young black pine at Bay Island Bonsai’s 13th annual exhibit. Shohin black pine – January 2012 The tree has continued to develop, so I thought I’d show it again at BIB’s 15th annual exhibit. Here’s what the tree looked like last week. January 2014 I brought the tree to […]
Search Results for: pine
Repotting a shore pine
The shore pine is kin to the lodgepole pine. Both are native to California and parts north, but the exact relationship is open to some debate (see Pinus contorta for details). Shore pine bark is great, if slow to develop, and the needles are relatively short. Not strong enough to withstand decandling, it can be trained like white pine […]
Refining a black pine
One of my longer term projects has been a black pine grown in the ground at Lone Pine Gardens. It looks like a somewhat normal tree save for a few extraneous over-size branches. The large branch in the front is the new apex – the branch on the right is helping the trunk thicken. Black pine […]
Refining a 10 year-old pine
Rather than make long term goals for trees, I’ll often make short to medium-term plans based on the current condition of the tree. This is true for many of the black pines I’ve been growing from seed, especially the ones for which I can’t see obvious futures. The pine below is one of these trees. […]
Refining young pines
A number of my young black pines are now 10 – almost 11 – years old. Depending on what they look like, I’m making cuts, repotting or letting them grow. The pine below has a number of exposed roots. As the main trunk growing up and to the right will not be part of the […]




