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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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 […]
Summer pruning young deciduous trees
It’s been a while since I last pruned some young quince and crabapples I’ve been growing from seed. By pruning in summer I can encourage them to produce new growth that I can wire in fall. Here’s a six-year old crabapple that I’m growing to be a shohin-sized tree. Siebold’s crab The trunk is close […]
Decandling field-grown black pines
One of the most fun stages of development is when the trunk has reached the desired size and the focus switches to improving branch density. The black pine below was field-grown at Lone Pine Gardens in Sebastopol, California. For the past few years I’ve been slowing the tree down in an effort to develop shorter […]
Young pine work with John Eads
Earlier this year I spent a week working on young pines with John Eads of Left Coast Bonsai. We pruned and/or wired almost every young pine in my garden to give us a chance to review the approach for trees at different stages of development. For some of the younger trees, the work was simple. […]