I’ve been working on an old cork-bark black pine since 2004. The tree has improved a lot over the years, but it still has a ways to go. The main focus at this stage is increasing the branch density. Cork-bark black pine – 23″ The tree is strong enough to decandle most years, but was […]
Black Pine
Early appearance of summer buds and a decandling tip
Seeing a note on my calendar to finish decandling a pine, I headed outside and brought the pine below into the workshop. Partially decandled black pine The idea was to remove the weaker shoots ahead of the stronger shoots. Although I usually decandle all of a tree’s shoots on a single day, I occasionally remove […]
An unprompted second flush of growth on black pine
In general, we can expect black and red pines to produce a single flush of growth all year. If we remove this growth at the right time, we can expect a second flush to grow in the same calendar year. On occasion, we might see pines produce this second flush of growth on their own. […]
Early stage development on field-grown black pines
Working on field-grown material a few years out of the ground is some of my favorite work. The main objectives for this early stage development are to heal wounds, create the upper sections of the trunk, and develop the primary branches. The black pine below has been out of the ground for two or three […]
Bonsai Development Series #7: Preparing the next sacrifice branch
I’m working on a number of five and six-year-old pines. Several look like the tree below, with vigorous growth on the top half of the tree and smaller shoots below. Five-year-old red pine – 27″ I’d like to slow down the top half of the tree to encourage the bottom half to become more vigorous. […]
