Two years ago this month, Daisaku Nomoto did a demonstration at the Pacific Northwest Bonsai Clubs Association convention in Olympia, Washington. His helpers were Boon Manakitivipart, Matt Reel and Tyler Sherrod – quite a team! Here’s the finished product. October, 2016 After the demo, I brought the tree home, repotted it in winter, and decandled […]
Black Pine
When to keep old needles on weak branches
Here’s another black pine that’s slowly regaining vigor. There’s plenty of new foliage on the strongest shoots, but many of the weaker branches have just a few new needles each. Old black pine Where there are many new needles, I can remove all of the old the needles. Relatively strong branch After removing the 3rd […]
Rehabilitating a black pine – removing old needles
I’d like to write a few articles this season about fall work for pines, in particular needle-pulling and thinning. I’ll start with a simple example. One of my recently acquired pines was very weak last year. When I repotted it for the first time, I found enough healthy roots to make me think the tree […]
Stimulating back buds on Japanese black pine
Earlier this week, we looked at the three basic types of buds found on black pine bonsai. Here’s what we can do to stimulate each. As terminal buds develop without prompting, we don’t need to do anything to encourage them. They’re the buds at the end of every living branch. To demonstrate techniques for stimulating […]
Bud types on pine bonsai
Pines commonly produce three types of buds: terminal buds, needle buds and adventitious buds. Terminal buds, often referred to as apical buds when they appear at the top of the tree, are the buds located at the tips of branches. Terminal bud Large terminal bud flanked by two lateral or accessory buds Needle buds are […]