Late last year, I brought my red pine forest in to a workshop with Daisaku Nomoto to see about preparing it for show. To my surprise, Nomoto was more concerned with the way the group was planted than he was with the branches. A repotting was in order. Nomoto’s chief comment was that he didn’t […]
forest
Sequoia deadwood
Deadwood, beyond fire scars, is not a major characteristic of mature sequoia. It is, however, a major characteristic of their environs as dead trees take a very long time to decompose. The beautiful and sinuous grain of the deadwood offers suggestions for our own deadwood carving. Nature, it seems, always gets it right. Toppled tree […]
Decandling before and after – red pine forest
Decandling is a great technique for improving ramification or for maintaining it. What little ramification my red pine forest has can be attributed to a few years of decandling. I don’t currently have any plans to further develop the trunks in this forest, so the branches are getting all of my attention. Here is the […]
Decandling a red pine forest – part 2
I decandled the red pine forest below about 3 months ago (see Decandling a red pine forest). The summer growth has come out and the trees look much fuller than they did in June. But because the summer was cool, this grove isn’t as far along as I’d expect for this time of year. No matter, […]
Decandling a red pine forest
Sixteen years ago I planted a group of red pine seeds. I made seedling cuttings, watered, and fertilized the trees, but never created a plan for their future. As a result, fate determined their present form. The trees were healthy but ungainly – perfect candidates for a forest planting. Red pines are a very vigorous […]