Typical fall work for Japanese black pine: remove old wire, remove unnecessary branches and needles, wire remaining branches. This simple process can reveal a lot about a tree. I’d been thinking the shohin black pine below had the basics in place – good primary and secondary branches that could be quickly developed into an attractive […]
Black Pine
Finding the front – Japanese black pine
The Japanese black pine pictured below hasn’t been re-styled in a long time. It’s healthy now, and ready for a change. Currently, the foliage is heavy on both the left and right sides. The owner is hoping to emphasize one side over the other. The two outstanding questions: which front is the most effective? and […]
Fall decandling – an update
In early October, I began an experiment to see if fall decandling could produce new interior buds on a couple of young Japanese black pines. To date, the results have been good. The first tree I decandled was the weaker of the two. There are plenty of new buds, but not a lot of back […]
More fall decandling
Last summer, Akio Kondo visited California to work and to teach bonsai. During a Bay Island Bonsai workshop, Kondo made an interesting suggestion for improving one of my pines. The tree looked great from a distance, but he quickly noticed that the tree had no interior buds. Without interior buds, the tree had no future. […]
Fall decandling
I decandled one of my black pines this week. I can’t say it makes much sense on the surface, but I have reason to believe good will come of it. I gave this a try at the suggestion of Akio Kondo. In a couple of years I’ll know more about the technique – for now […]