Ponderosa pine from burlap bonanza at golden arrow.

I was lucky enough to snag one of the trees from golden arrows burlap bonanza sale. I already commented n the vendor experiences thread and most of you know that Andy is a great guy to deal with. He gave quick responses via email, had great pricing, tree was packaged well and he refunded some of my money to boot because shipping was less than expected. That shows me right there that he is good people.

So with that said here is my tree. I had rescued some trees last week and was somewhat short on containers so this is where it will be potted for a while. I added some extra holes for drainage.

Comments welcome and appreciated.

Hello Ny..I have heard good things about Golden arrow. Do you have any style options in mind for this tree?

Rob

I lived for a long time in Colorado and grew up with
these growing all around... Miss them !!!
Often look at his site and drool...

Would buy most of what he has, if they would only
do well here in Florida... Sadly not.
His prices are very reasonable as well !!!

Good Luck !!!

No plans for it this year but here is a crappy virt of my initial thought after looking at the tree very briefly. Bring that branch down and in.

Nice, I also bought one of the BB trees this year. Nice tree with a good root pad, hope it regains its vigor this year. Looks like you got a nice one as well, don't you just love the natural aged bark? If only we could achieve the same rugged look in a small field grown pine.

Since you probably just received this as mine just arrrived friday, you might want to think about repotting it into a smaller pot as these collected trees are used to having confined root systems. A high amount of air curculation helps them get used to domestic potted life. They need to dry out between waterings, your mix looks great for most things but if you've ever bought one of Andys other trees he grows them mostly chicken grit (granite) and turface with a little organic. Randy Night in oregon pots them in almost pure pumice. The large pot it's in now will keep it moist for too long I believe. But I could be wrong as I'm not looking at it in person.

I potted my BB tree in a pot about the size of the root ball which was well ramified but smaller then my hand the mix i used was 1/3 granigrit, 1/3 pumice, 1/3 a mix of akadama and lava.

Beng,
Totally agree about the bark. It is fantastic! I agree about the pot too. I wanted to get it into a smaller pot, but it was a combo of what I had on hand and the awkward shape of the roots. Long firm narrow roots that stretch the diameter of the pot. A rectangle could probably get it more snug.

I got one last yr guys, and I planted it in a 70/30 pumice/turface. Responded extremely well, and is pushing tons of new buds this yr. In fact, I could've styled it this winter but dec. to wait. Anyway, I love pumice. Nice tree Nybonsai!

Oh wow he must have been able to collect a lot of roots with yours. Will it be possible to reduce them in the years to come? Will share a pic of mine potted up this week.

Beng said:

Will it be possible to reduce them in the years to come?

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I sure hope so. Looking forward to your pic.

Updating some threads so I figured I would just throw up the pic of the needles to see of anyone can give any thoughts.

Was just brushing off some of the old, dead needles off my pondy this evening...they shed the 3- and some 2-year-old needles around this time of year.

Brian Van Fleet said:

Was just brushing off some of the old, dead needles off my pondy this evening...they shed the 3- and some 2-year-old needles around this time of year.

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I know it's near impossible to tell, but you think that is what I have going on right now? The majority of the needles are healthy, for now.

It looks like the tree is dropping some old needles...but also if a small branch does not have enough needles or if the small branch is weak - the tree may slowly drop that small branch. This can and does happen. I would not eliminate any branches with needles for at least 1 year. Use everything you have to build up strength. How big is the container for this tree - it seems big and deep. You want to put the ponderosa in something large enough to capture the root mass but not oversize the container. If the roots are too wet and all the time - not good. Good luck...Tom

The roots on this one were funny. Holding the tree from the side the roots kind of make the tree look like an L shape. They reach across the full diameter of the pot, but not as much on the sides. The tree would have probably been better suited for a narrower rectangle pot, but at the time this is what I had.

I don't believe the soil is staying wet as it is very free draining. I check it daily and with all the crummy wet weather we have had, I have been moving it out of the rain just to ensure it is not too wet. I'll make sure to keep as close an eye as possible on it. Thanks for the thought.