Memorial cork bark JBP

[markyscott]

Donald Green was a friend and former president of the Houston Bonsai Society. This was one of his trees - a young cork bark black pine.



Rough stock. Growing in a heavy soil. Color was a bit off. I thinned it a bit and pulled a few needles to let light inside about 1 1/2 years ago. Here it is after thinning.



I then repotted it last January, bare rooting 1/2 the rootball. This year I just let it grow. Time for its first styling.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

I thinned it again, pulled needles and cut the long needles back. It grew strong all year and the color was much better. Here it is right before wiring.



Wiring in progress


Scott

 

[fredtruck]

You've got some nice cork, there.

 

[markyscott]

Allow me to digress for a minute. There are lots of ways to anchor guy wires. Generally it's best to anchor to a jin or a root. But if you're not going to repot for a couple of years and there's not an ideal place to anchor to the tree, it's OK to anchor to the pot. Here's one way to do it.

We're going to anchor through the drainage hole on the bottom of the pot.


Cut a length of copper wire and bend a hook in one end:




Scott

 

[markyscott]

Feed the hook through the drainage hole:



Bend it around the side of the pot and cut it so an inch or so sticks above the top of the pot:


Then use your pliers to bend a loop in the end of the wire:



Now you have something to anchor your guy wires to. As you can see I have a couple of these on the pine.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

All finished.


As you can see, I've changed the front a bit. The tree suffers from a bit of reverse taper, but that's par for the course when you have a cork bark pine. But I thought it turned out OK. I hope Donald would be pleased.

Scott

 

[Tieball]

Feed the hook through the drainage hole:
View attachment 125477
View attachment 125478

Bend it around the side of the pot and cut it so an inch or so sticks above the top of the pot:
View attachment 125479

Then use your pliers to bend a loop in the end of the wire:
View attachment 125480
View attachment 125481

Now you have something to anchor your guy wires to. As you can see I have a couple of these on the pine.

Scott

Cool. Thanks. I have wondered how a guy wire could be successfully attached. Now I know....and hopefully will remember when I need an attachment.

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Nice job, the reverse taper is common on this species but still bothers me. Have you cut the needles?

 

[markyscott]

Nice job, the reverse taper is common on this species but still bothers me. Have you cut the needles?

Reverse taper with cork bark trees is hard to get away from. I wonder why they don't graft lower?

I did cut the needles. This is the first rough styling. In the future the need for that will go away with proper candle management.

Scott

 

[fredtruck]

It depends on who does the graft. I think the technical name for it is a root crown graft. The graft is done right above the roots, with the idea that the cork will grow down to the roots and completely, or almost completely obscure the graft line.

Not many people do this, but some do. I have 2 cork bark black pines that were grafted by Dave DeWire. You really can't tell where the graft is.



The wings are just now beginning to separate right above the roots. There is an inverted V that extends above the roots to above where the wings are separating. That's a very low graft.

 

[markyscott]

It depends on who does the graft. I think the technical name for it is a root crown graft. The graft is done right above the roots, with the idea that the cork will grow down to the roots and completely, or almost completely obscure the graft line.

Not many people do this, but some do. I have 2 cork bark black pines that were grafted by Dave DeWire. You really can't tell where the graft is.

View attachment 125503

The wings are just now beginning to separate right above the roots. There is an inverted V that extends above the roots to above where the wings are separating. That's a very low graft.

Looks like he did a nice job. Is Dave still active? I used to go to his place all the time when he owned Mt. Si Bonsai. I really enjoyed visiting him. But I totally lost track when I left the PNW.

Scott

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Looks like he did a nice job. Is Dave still active? I used to go to his place all the time when he owned Mt. Si Bonsai. I really enjoyed visiting him. But I totally lost track when I left the PNW.

Scott

The last I saw from Dave was here: https://dragonflyfarmsnursery.com/wabi-sabi
Any idea what cultivar yours is, Scott? You did a good job setting primary branches. I'll be eager to see how it responds to candle cutting; some cultivars respond better than others. On the graft issue, you can always Gorilla-glue on some bark chunks from pruned-away branches. Well-placed cork additions can go a long way to reduce the appearance of reverse taper...

 

[fredtruck]

On the graft issue, you can always Gorilla-glue on some bark chunks from pruned-away branches. Well-placed cork additions can go a long way to reduce the appearance of reverse taper...

I completely agree with this. I've done it on other trees and it works very well.

 

[Random User]

On "round tapered pots" I just use a girdle wire placed about 1/2 way up the hieght of the pot... then tie the lower end of the guy-wires around that... I find that I can always find the right angle to place the guy-wires if I need to pull a branch a bit sideways as well as down. Of course this only works good if you have three or more branches that need to be pulled down.

BUT, it looks like crap; there is little doubt about that.

And it makes it a bit more difficult moving trees around with it on.

 

[markyscott]

The last I saw from Dave was here: https://dragonflyfarmsnursery.com/wabi-sabi
Any idea what cultivar yours is, Scott? You did a good job setting primary branches. I'll be eager to see how it responds to candle cutting; some cultivars respond better than others. On the graft issue, you can always Gorilla-glue on some bark chunks from pruned-away branches. Well-placed cork additions can go a long way to reduce the appearance of reverse taper...

Hi Brian -

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to ask Donald about the cultivar. But it has red buds, so that rules out a bunch of them. It's probably not Kyokko Yatsubusa, Mi Nishiki, Samo mu, Sirome, Taihei, Zui Ho, Brocade, Hakuseki or Kyokko.

Needles are are deep green and kind of average thickness. Could be Kyokko Yatsubusa or Mi Nishiki - It's got a ton of back buds. Maybe Mi Nishiki? What do you think?

And great idea about gluing on the cork. I better dig those pruned branches out of the compost!

Scott

 

[Adair M]

If there is a hole in the bottom of the pot in a good place, you can run your anchor wire up from the hole in the bottom thru the soil, and make your loop right at the soil line, or just below. And anchor the bottom by either wrapping the wire around a heavy wire that spans the hole, or running the anchor wire to hook in another hole in the pot.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I have finally found a 1979 copy of International Bonsai Magazine that has a table of characteristics to help identify corkers. I can email a scan to you if you want.

From my experience, Kyokko Yatsubusa has white buds, and my Taihei from Dave has red buds. I cared for a corker JBP our club owned since the early 1980s, and the needle length, shape, and bark pattern/color looks a lot like yours. I had it guessed as 'Aka Me'. But it's a guess.

 

[markyscott]

I have finally found a 1979 copy of International Bonsai Magazine that has a table of characteristics to help identify corkers. I can email a scan to you if you want.

From my experience, Kyokko Yatsubusa has white buds, and my Taihei from Dave has red buds. I cared for a corker JBP our club owned since the early 1980s, and the needle length, shape, and bark pattern/color looks a lot like yours. I had it guessed as 'Aka Me'. But it's a guess.

Thanks Brian. Very kind of you to offer to do that, but I have that issue. Let me check it to refresh my memory, but I had it in my mind that KY had red buds, but Ill look at the usual references. I think I have a table I compiled from a couple of different resources including that one.

Scott

 

[petegreg]

And great idea about gluing on the cork. I better dig those pruned branches out of the compost!

Scott

Pardon me for a Q: Isn't this cheating? And it would mean gluing some bark wings every couple years.
Is there a belief the tree can grow wings down over the graft? Thanks.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Pardon me for a Q: Isn't this cheating? And it would mean gluing some bark wings every couple years.
Is there a belief the tree can grow wings down over the graft? Thanks.

No more than wiring. It's all part of the illusion, and if you don't think the pros have some tricks, I have a bridge to sell.