Help with single flush landscaper

[Daniel son STL]

So I bought this stumpy pine about 3 years ago. Threw it in my front garden bed. Mainly just want to maintain it as a smaller tree. Although it was single padded and I’m trying to grow out a second pad for some reason while maintaining the first.

So normally every spring I cut the candles back to about the same length. Although I don’t remember them getting this big.


So if I cut them near or below the pollen (below the needles) there’s no second flush and branch could die, so I believe I have to leave some new needles But there just so high up the candle I feel it’s slowly going to loose shape. I want to cut them short damn it!

And the newer developing top pad I feel I need to cut the candles as well now (havnt cut candles on second pad yet) and hope to induce some back budding to thicken up that pad a bit.

Am I on the right track as far as developing the second pad and maintaining the shape of the original or do I just need to let this turd grow and do it’s thing, maybe loose the second pad.
Any and all advice is much appreciated guys!!!

 

[Tieball]

You know…a photo of the tree would really be helpful.

 

[Maiden69]

You know…a photo of the tree would really be helpful.

look again, I guess they were added while you were typing.

 

[BrightsideB]

I think you should consider branch selecting and design. Right now everything is at the same height except one branch. Seeing the trunk line and allowing light into the interior will help it look more like an older tree.

 

[Daniel son STL]

You know…a photo of the tree would really be helpful.

Yeah I messed that up in the first go

 

[Daniel son STL]

I think you should consider branch selecting and design. Right now everything is at the same height except one branch. Seeing the trunk line and allowing light into the interior will help it look more like an older tree.

Well the design is already there. It’s just a flat top padded tree for the landscape. Never thought of branch selection really on a tree like this. It’s literally supposed to be a mess of branches to form the pads. Although I see how thinning it could let some light in and better allow for back budding.

 

[BrightsideB]

Well the design is already there. It’s just a flat top padded tree for the landscape. Never thought of branch selection really on a tree like this. It’s literally supposed to be a mess of branches to form the pads. Although I see how thinning it could let some light in and better allow for back budding.

I see. You can branch select the large ones then keep the form going with wire and have visually strong larger branches in the future to give it more of a tree look. If you just let every branch grow you end up with a lot of thin scraggly branches. Just my thoughts.

 

[Daniel son STL]

 

[BrightsideB]

View attachment 486228

Looks like your on the right track

 

[rockm]

Well the design is already there. It’s just a flat top padded tree for the landscape. Never thought of branch selection really on a tree like this. It’s literally supposed to be a mess of branches to form the pads. Although I see how thinning it could let some light in and better allow for back budding.

There is no real design there. It's a lollipop of cramped foliage. Left with no work, those thin branches will only get longer and remain skinny, there will be no backbudding (because of shaded buds and no pruning) to work with. If you decide to work on it in the future, you're probably going to have to spend years pushing new buds on interior branches...To each their own...BTW, you know the dragon's blood tree is a tropical and not even a conifer, right? It's a dracena with yucca-like spikes -- only up high.

 

[Daniel son STL]

Yes it’s not a dragons blood, grabbed it from Home Depot. Yes not much of a style, this is a garden tree, although the shape… aka style sure does resemble that of a dragons blood though in miniature form. And I’m not really asking for styling advice. I’m asking if there’s anyway to keep it small, or if there just no getting around the fact that in 15 years it’ll be much much bigger or dead from trying.
Maybe it’s a dwarf and contains naturally smaller growth habits, that’d be nice. But I don’t know how big it can get I’m just trying to keep it small while building a second pad.
Not trying to spend a whole lot of time on this garden tree every year other then pruning it back If I can get away with it. Not try to dig it up and work the nebari you know what I mean???

 

[jevanlewis]

It looks like a Tanyosho (Japanese Red Pine), which has a tendency to develop a flat-top / umbrella shape (and yes, it is considered a dwarf variety). If it is a Tanyosho, it technically is a double-flush pine, but I'm not sure if the Tanyosho is as rigorous a grower as the standard JRP (I had one at my previous house; one summer I decandled it and it reliably gave me a second flush; but, not sure if I would want to do it every year).

 

[Daniel son STL]

It looks like a Tanyosho (Japanese Red Pine), which has a tendency to develop a flat-top / umbrella shape (and yes, it is considered a dwarf variety). If it is a Tanyosho, it technically is a double-flush pine, but I'm not sure if the Tanyosho is as rigorous a grower as the standard JRP (I had one at my previous house; one summer I decandled it and it reliably gave me a second flush; but, not sure if I would want to do it every year).

Don’t remember getting a second flush but I’ll keep an eye out.

 

[Daniel son STL]

Think is what I’m going to do is just remove all the largest candles completely because right next to every large candle there’s a smaller one, that I’ll cut back just a bit

 

[rockm]

FWIW, saw this Japanese Red Pine bonsai at the Potomac Bonsai Association's show this weekend. It's a lot like yours. The owner has thinned it considerably and made sense out of the interior branching.

 

[Daniel son STL]

I see. I’ll go through it and have a better look, do do branch selecting even.