It’s common to divide a tree’s shoots into three zones based on strength during decandling season. A long-term project of mine had me dividing a tree into three zones for very different reasons. Japanese black pine – after decandling The lowest third of this sixteen year-old Japanese black pine is beginning to develop branches that […]
Black Pine
Decandling black pine – case study
There’s a lot to say about decandling Japanese black pine. I’ll start with some basics. Here’s a pine going into decandling season. Japanese black pine – front Japanese black pine – back And here’s the same tree after decandling: Japanese black pine – front It won’t take much effort to see that I didn’t decandle […]
Planting pine seeds
[8/16/16 – See the updated and expanded version: How to grow Japanese black pine from seed] In my quest to grow Japanese black pine bonsai from seed, I planted some pine seeds earlier this spring. The process is simple. The first step is preparing a shallow pot with bonsai soil. While a number of soils […]
Case study: balance – follow-up
The tree from Tuesday’s Case study was shown this past January at Bay Island Bonsai’s 11th annual exhibit. Japanese black pine as shown at BIB’s 11th annual exhibit I hope Boon will share the tree’s story some day – it’s a good one. The tree has been in development for a long time from nursery […]
Case study: balance
Balance is one of my favorite topics for bonsai discussions. The term can be used broadly – I recently mentioned a few of the possibilities in relation to trees exhibited this year by the Bay Area Bonsai Associates. One of the more primary considerations is whether a tree points left or right. Getting direction right […]