My Julian Adams Scots Pine

[VAFisher]

I bought this pine from Mr. Adams last August along with an azalea. I was drawn to the long slender trunk with its nice gentle curve . He had other, fatter specimens but this one spoke to me. I'm pretty sure the azalea is now a goner but this pine seems to be doing well. Mr. Adams told me that this tree was growing in the ground until he dug it up last spring. So it has only been in this pot for about a year. I am planning on leaving it be until at least 2017 based on his advice. I had a couple scary moments this spring where the tree blew off the bench that you see in the background. Luckily there was no damage and I was able to just re-fill the top inch or so of soil that spilled out. My solution was to put the tree into this heavier pot with some gravel filled between the 2 pots to keep it in place. Not all that pretty but it's effective.

I'm a little unsure of the future direction of the tree with respect to the branches. It has some bar branches but they don't look bad to me. I was hoping to get some opinions about what direction you would take this tree in if it was yours.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Dav4]

This tree has nice bones and can definitely look great with a good wiring and some thinning. I will defer to others as to how and when to go about doing the pruning, but thinning it out and getting some downward and side to side movement in those branches will really improve the image. I might also look into losing the left lowest branch, really cranking the right lowest branch downward, and eventually changing the planting angle a few degrees to the right to give it a more obvious lean. Good luck with it.

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Nice movement. Do you have strong growing shoots closer to the trunk than the outside candles? If so you can start chasing back, otherwise you can do some old needle pulling to let light in, seems to be healthy. style in fall, keep all branches except the ones that have to go. No big dissensions. Add movement and place in good angle. Next few years concentrate on cutting back this time of the year to a few pairs of new needles this time of year, leaving branches that are growing in the right places where you want to add a branch to the pad. Add the bottom branches that will form the pad. The rest is for over a few years...

 

[Djtommy]

I might also look into losing the left lowest branch,.

I agree

 

[VAFisher]

Thanks for the thoughts. One question though - If I lose the lowest left branch, I'll have my first branch on the inside of the curve. Isn't this "wrong"? This is the reason I'm a little confused about where to go with it.

 

[Dav4]

Thanks for the thoughts. One question though - If I lose the lowest left branch, I'll have my first branch on the inside of the curve. Isn't this "wrong"? This is the reason I'm a little confused about where to go with it.

Falling branches can come from the inside of a curve...and the curve of this tree is mild at best. No rush doing the deed, either. Take some time and study other refined bonsai w/ a similar shape to give you some inspiration.

 

[VAFisher]

Falling branches can come from the inside of a curve...and the curve of this tree is mild at best. No rush doing the deed, either. Take some time and study other refined bonsai w/ a similar shape to give you some inspiration.

Thanks Dav4. I'll give it some serious thought. I found a picture of this tree from last year right after I bought it also.

 

[sorce]

Looks healthy!

Whatever you do. Do it slow!

This one is nice!

Sorce

 

[Giga]

I agree- take your time as this has potential to be an amazing tree-it's good to study other trees, then look at your tree and something may just pop into your head. I need to look into getting one of these!

 

[VAFisher]

Yep, this is by far my best tree and the plan is to take it nice and slow. I learned my lesson with the nice azalea that I rushed this spring and just chucked into the woods last night. I will not make the same mistake with this one.

 

[Giga]

maybe this fall I'll make a trip out there- 3 and a half hour drive though! Have any other pics of the place?

 

[VAFisher]

Just to clarify, the pics in this thread are my place - not his. I didn't take any pics while I was there but he had a lot of nice stuff - trident maples, scots pine, JBP, satsuki azalea and other stuff. He did say that he was thinking of getting out of azaleas because he was having a lot of trouble with deer stomping them. There was a pile of shotgun shells at the end of his driveway - seems he has been having an ongoing war.

He couldn't have been nicer. I was driving down 81 and decided to call him on a whim. He was nice enough to show me around on short notice and sell me 2 trees at what I thought were pretty awesome prices.

 

[Giga]

Mind Pm'ing the price of this pine?

 

[Vance Wood]

Take it nice and slow????? What you need to do is start examining the branch structure and see what you think you can do with the tree. It has a tall straight trunk and most of the foliage is located in the top 50% of the tree. Check out the branches and imagine them up, down, far down as in strapped to the trunk or gone altogether. It looks like to me all you really need to do is give the branches some movement, the trunk allready has that, and eliminate those branches that don't fit the model. You have a pretty decent informal upright/ quasi-literate sitting right there in front of you. All you have to do is let it lose.

Rempve branches that make bar branches, remove branches that are at the inside of curves and remove all of the downward growing needles and open the tree up to light and back budding.

 

[Adair M]

This a pine. Wire is a pine's best friend. Make it happen.

 

[VAFisher]

This bonsai stuff is confusing! I never know when I'm supposed to be patient and take it slow and when I'm supposed to go ahead and get on with it...

Anyway, I spent some time studying the tree and playing around with a virtual. I think this image is what I would like to achieve with this tree. Or at least something approximating this. Basically this would involve removing both of the lowest branches and growing a long cascading branch to go with the long trunk.



This looks right to me and all of the branches are already there. It will just take growing one out a lot longer and putting some nice movement in it. Thoughts on this?

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Styling discussion in 2 dimensions often fail. Tilting and turning the trunk a bit will create a different feeling. Develop all branches for now (except the obvious non-keepers). I feel like keeping the left to cascade and shorten your right branch OR you can go with your design but style the top to the right and removing the left branch. To difficult from photo's...

 

[VAFisher]

Update on this tree with a quick note. If you think it's all messed up now, please blame Vance! I was all set to just leave it alone and he came along and told me to start removing stuff. But...If you like it, it was all my idea. Ha ha.

I kept playing around with what the tree would look like by removing this branch and then that branch and none of the options looked good to me. I didn't think having the low right branch as the 1st branch on the inside of the curve looked good. And removing that one meant the low left branch would have to go as well to avoid having 2 branches stacked on top of each other. So...I felt like the only options were to leave all of the branches as they were or remove both of them per my virtual above. I decided to remove them.



I also slip-potted it into this training pot without disturbng the roots. At first, I was afraid I had made a huge mistake (and maybe I did), but it's starting to grow on me. I think this puts the focus on the long, slender trunk - which I think is the best feature - and I can now work towards a better design.

What do you think?

 

[coh]

Looks OK to me, but I wouldn't extend that right branch down like you have in the virt. That looks way too contrived, at least for my taste. Nice healthy looking tree.

 

[Dav4]

Personally, I would have kept some of the lower branches, wired them out and down for shape and then decided if they added to the design or not before removing them. Honestly, that's how I've always styled trees like this...keep a fair amount of branches, wire them out, study the resulting image for a while, then reduce as needed. It may take more time, but I feel like you end up making the most of the material. It's still a nice tree but I think it could have been more dynamic if you had kept at least one of the lower branches and lowered it dramatically.