Nursery pine, gift from my wife.

[PierreR]

So yesterday, my wife decided to get me a pine. Not knowing what to look for, only remembering bits and pieces of my random mutterings about my trees, she took a chance. Got this scots/scotch (penguin) pine. In a 3 gallon pot. It was a total dense ball of green.

She said "I couldn't see any trunk, and I know you said one trunk is best so I stuck my hand through and only felt one fat one and lots of branches! I figured it was a good one! "

It was late yesterday evening when I got a look at it, but left it till morning. Started with cleaning out the dropped needles, dead twigs, and a couple weaker looking twigs, all in an effort to see the lines this tree may be hiding. All in all, its not too bad. Trunk is about 2" thick, 14" tall with some decent movement. Not a stick anyway. The bark has nice texture, not smooth, branches everywhere! As densely packed as the foliage was, I expected the inside to be completely bare/dead. This thing budded all over, not forming well, but an inch or two in length. I opened it up a little cleaning it out, and will leave it now till fall.

Down side is the grafting scar, kind of a knob, I didn't dig to the nebari, so not sure there...

Anyway, it was quite thoughtful of her to try! Here is a look at it.

Backbudded everywhere, holy crap...

Thanks for looking, comments welcomed!

 

[M. Frary]

That is a ball of foliage. Healthy looking too!
Your wife did good.

 

[Vance Wood]

You need to get in there and start recognizing what you need to keep and what you need to remove. Any idea for sure what kind of Pine you have there?

Looks a lot like Mugo or Japanese Red Pine. The needles do not look stiff enough to be Scots but that cannot be ruled out.

 

[PierreR]

According to the tag... Oh, and ignore the dirty hands, was doing some garden work.

 

[PierreR]

You need to get in there and start recognizing what you need to keep and what you need to remove. Any idea for sure what kind of Pine you have there?

Looks a lot like Mugo or Japanese Red Pine. The needles do not look stiff enough to be Scots but that cannot be ruled out.

Vance, is there a difference between Scots and Scotch pines, or are the the same? I think they are one in the same?

 

[Vance Wood]

It's the same thing. It is Scots Pine. Scotch Pine is incorrect. About the only place where the term Scotch is considered correct is the realm of booze.

 

[Smoke]

....and transparent tape....

 

[Paulpash]

...And eggs ....

 

[Jaberwky17]

My first comment on nursery trees like this is they come ready-made with tons of radial branching (whorls). As Vance said, you need to get in there and see what you have for keeping and cutting. Plan to cut branches to eliminate the radial branching. Whorls will equal reverse taper or at least ugly knots up the trunk as you thin it out.

 

[PierreR]

After speaking with Vance, I did some thinning. Remove some smaller branches and some of the downward growing twigs. I figure I have removed enough for now. Thoughts/comments appreciated.

 

[jeanluc83]

I'd say you did quite well. Why not put it in a pond basket while you're at it?

 

[Vance Wood]

I agree with the idea of a pond basket or colander. You could also remove a bit more of the lower growing small branches, especially those that seem to be sitting on the ground.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Looks like a good subject tree to begin with. Well your wife did for you and always a treasure to you should this tree be .

 

[PierreR]

Into a good draining mix, and in a pond basket.

Edit: sorry for the poor photo

 

[sorce]

Into a good draining mix, and in a pond basket.

Edit: sorry for the poor photo

I like this one!
I hope it wasn't bare rooted!

Sorce

 

[PierreR]

I like this one!
I hope it wasn't bare rooted!

Sorce

Thanks! No sir, it had tons of room in its old nursery pot, knocked off the surplus, and put it in the pond basket. It still has 80% of its roots in original soil.

 

[barrosinc]

just for the future... don't cut the top of the basket off, it gives the basket some hardness.

 

[Txhorticulture]

Not only is scotch pine incorrect it may be offensive to some.

 

[M. Frary]

But they're from Scotchland aren't they?

 

[Txhorticulture]

That's a dwarf cultivar so it had to be grafted. One thing about grafted pines is that they are not alwayes grafted onto the same species rootstock. Can you see a discernible graft union? Does the bark above and below look similar?