Having just appeared in BIB’s 15th annual exhibit, the small black pine below was due for a tune up. Daisaku Nomoto made a surprising number of cuts and then reset the remaining branches. When he was finished, I repotted the tree into a more suitable container for the growing season. Shohin black pine After cutback […]
Black Pine
Preparing a small pine for exhibit
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 […]
Making a big cut
While maintenance work like minor cutback or wiring can make a tree shine, it’s the larger cuts that really speed along development. Of course, we don’t always enter workshops expecting to make these big cuts. Such was the case for a tree that showed up to last weekend’s Bay Island Bonsai workshop. After selecting a […]
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. […]