Pinus Strobus-Don't hate

[Giga]

Just wanted to share my rarely used pine bonsai. It's a 'blue shag' variant, the needles are very soft and have hint of blue. I still trying to figure out care(as there's no concrete info) in terms of candle cutting, pinching, and general work so I've been kind of just going on a slow pace. I'm slowly working out the flaws and getting a good ramification. I just styled it this fall, so I don't know if it can handle being put in a pot this spring so I may wait till the following spring for that. Despite what people say I've been enjoying this species, may never be show worthy-time will tell I guess. Comments, thought, critiques?

when I first got it-pardon my awesome cell phone photography


Sorry not the best cell phone shot-it's about 18" tall and I need a side shot


trunk base about 2.5" across-it's more green as it goes up, but time and maybe a sacrifice branch(in this picture for a future jin) will help with that.

 

[RickMartin]

very nice tree. you have to be happy with the tree, if you are thats all that matters. Advice is great, i get alot of info here and i listen to everyone here on what should be done and what shouldn't., but at end game its your tree. Follow some advise from the good people here and it will be a better tree.

Rick

 

[qwade]

Nice little tree. I am sure this will be a nice tree to work with. I like the soft flowing needles of this species. Blue shag is a dwarf growing cultivar which makes excellent material for bonsai. Is there a graft on the trunk? Most named cultivars are grafted and must be dealt with in bonsai. Should be similar to 5 needle japanese white pines in culture and care. Good Luck and keep us posted

 

[0soyoung]

I'm slowly working out the flaws and getting a good ramification. ... Despite what people say I've been enjoying this species, .... Comments, thought, critiques?

You are not alone in your love of P. strobus for its foliage. What have you been doing to develop ramification?

Have you read through the Strobus! Discuss thread? Comments, thought, critiques?

 

[Giga]

Nice little tree. I am sure this will be a nice tree to work with. I like the soft flowing needles of this species. Blue shag is a dwarf growing cultivar which makes excellent material for bonsai. Is there a graft on the trunk? Most named cultivars are grafted and must be dealt with in bonsai. Should be similar to 5 needle japanese white pines in culture and care. Good Luck and keep us posted

Yes there is a graft, but it's a pretty decent graft-only real reason you can tell it's a graft is the bark is different. I have no idea what it's grafted onto though.

You are not alone in your love of P. strobus for its foliage. What have you been doing to develop ramification?

Have you read through the Strobus! Discuss thread? Comments, thought, critiques?

I've been just pinching for now to keep things within the shape and then in fall bud selecting down to two,nedlle pulling and removing anything too stong. Though this almost acts like a black pine as it buds back a lot. Only problem is, it does back bud, but tends to push the buds at the main branches where whorls once where. So i'll be doing some approch and regular grafts
for branches i want

 

[jk_lewis]

pardon my awesome cell phone photography

Excellent! It is right side up!

 

[Giga]

Always nice when they don't rotate on here-here's another awesome top down shot Also since I styled this fall would a repot come spring be too much? I really want to get it out of the plastic 5 gallon nursery pot it's in

 

[jk_lewis]

You probably could repot, but there is nothing WRONG about keeping it where it is. If you do repot, use a larger than normal size.

 

[Giga]

yeah I have no problem with keeping it in the larger container as it's very well establish in there. I find that a lot of nursery material has been in the pot for a number of years and are ready to style off the bat. A little different then most thinking as get it in a pot right away but this way I can do work style it then once it's in a pot it's ready

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Nice little tree. I have an ugly strobus I have been playing with for 20 years. No photo as I had a bad outbreak of some hideous fungus that caused browning in the newest candles for 2014, but Cleary's 1333 seems to have cleared it up, next years buds are forming. Oh well.

If you plan for a loose open style, to leave room for the long needles, you can make a nice bonsai. But don't expect to make a Japanese white pine style image. Take advantage of the soft airy needles in your design. It can work well.

I have been successful with early-middle summer repotting, after needles have expanded. Late summer is good too - but if you repot late - you should protect from extreme cold for the following winter. This is with own root species. You tree is most likely on P. nigra or P. sylvestris if it came from a commercial nursery. If the propagating nursery was from southern California, it might be on JBP. But my bet would be P. nigra, which should not cause problems and be very cold hardy. If it responds well with new candles everywhere, you could repot summer-late summer 2015. See what it does.

Since it is a dwarf, and possibly slow to respond, it might be better to hold off repotting until 2016.

Nice material.

 

[Giga]

Nice little tree. I have an ugly strobus I have been playing with for 20 years. No photo as I had a bad outbreak of some hideous fungus that caused browning in the newest candles for 2014, but Cleary's 1333 seems to have cleared it up, next years buds are forming. Oh well.

If you plan for a loose open style, to leave room for the long needles, you can make a nice bonsai. But don't expect to make a Japanese white pine style image. Take advantage of the soft airy needles in your design. It can work well.

I have been successful with early-middle summer repotting, after needles have expanded. Late summer is good too - but if you repot late - you should protect from extreme cold for the following winter. This is with own root species. You tree is most likely on P. nigra or P. sylvestris if it came from a commercial nursery. If the propagating nursery was from southern California, it might be on JBP. But my bet would be P. nigra, which should not cause problems and be very cold hardy. If it responds well with new candles everywhere, you could repot summer-late summer 2015. See what it does.

Since it is a dwarf, and possibly slow to respond, it might be better to hold off repotting until 2016.

Nice material.

I gonna have to think about how I want to handle this as I think I could go either way. I was also thinking about a different colored pot as it's very rarly used pine maybe a deep red to accent the blue. I think the tag is still legible so i'll see if it says where it came from.

 

[jeanluc83]

Just wanted to share my rarely used pine bonsai. It's a 'blue shag' variant, the needles are very soft and have hint of blue.

That's kind of funny, I almost picked up one last night at a local nursery. It was before I saw your post. They had a couple that looked almost identical to yours. I may have to go back and pick one up. If I remember right they wanted about $40.

 

[Giga]

Just root through them. Most were bad grafts or growth wouldn't have worked. This one was a lot larger then the rest, very good graft, and had branches where they needed to be. I only paid 20$ for mine. Either way it's still a fun tree to work on. I may go get another one just as a test bed

 

[Giga]

first image is that typical length I'm getting right now and the second is the random micro needles I get on occasion. I'm slowly working out how to constantly get small needles on this species and after a couple more year I think I might figure it out. Last image is the whole thing-which is need of some work but it'll do

 

[0soyoung]

I'm slowly working out how to constantly get small needles on this species

You can decandle on the same schedule as you do JBP and have nothing but small needles. I'm not sure that it is a good thing to do, though.

I'm most interested if you find another way to do it.

 

[Giga]

Slowly but surely taking shape, just did some fall work - I was able to cut back some this year as I got a lot of needle buds on last years growth. Needle length is not consistent but better this year and I'm hoping next couple years it will have better defined pads-Had to do a little creative wiring but as I get better ramification some branches will go and pads will form-at least that's the plan for this unruly species.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Coming along nicely. The back budding you are getting is not typical of the type form of strobus. Clearly 'Blue Shag' is a dwarf with better back budding capability than the normal type strobus. Nice. It is looking more tree like. I like the new pot, very utilitarian, it will allow you to change fronts without having to repot the tree. Good choice for trees in early development.

I have consistently killed quite a number of pines by being too aggressive, doing too much in a single year. Some were pines I really loved, not just "experiments". Be sure to leave this tree time to recover and grow. You are in Virginia Beach VA, a much more mild climate than mine, so take my following comment with our climate differences in mind. But you styled in fall 2014, repotted spring 2015, and did some pruning and work this autumn. You have done something almost every 6 months. I would give the tree a work vacation for 2016, no repotting, no major pruning. Let the tree build up some vigor. Then in 2017 I would do a major pruning. This should give you a real strong flush of budding.

I also would not pull old needles the way you do with JBP. This is a white pine, and each needle has the all important needle bud at its base. Since the white pine family generally is very reluctant to activate epicormic buds (buds that sprout from the bark, with no associated branch or needle) I would keep old needles as long as they stay green, to retain the highest potential to get needle buds to activate. Once you pull old needles, chances are slim for buds to activate on bare bark.

If this were my tree I would consider removing the top, cut it off above the first or second whorl, and make your tree from the first or first and second whorl of branches. This will get rid of a straight section of trunk and introduce more dramatic taper. Consider it, Though the image you have is not bad. I think with the good growth you have been getting the chopping low would 5 or 10 years down the road result in a better tree.

But I'm no expert, just a thought to consider.

 

[Giga]

I had not considered chopping it lower and growing a new leader like I would, say a maple, I actually don't pull green needles, I just remove yellow needles that the tree is already shedding on it own. I may do just that, I have some large colanders and I may slip pot it in one if I decide that route to help it rebuild it's self. Thanks for the ideas!

 

[Potawatomi13]

A pretty bad flaw I see in the two lowest branches being bar or near bar branches right across from each other. If already you hadn't thought of it the small sprout down low might be used as a second trunk. Best of fortune.

 

[sorce]

Damn Giga.

That trunk seemed to get fat as hell!

With a good low sacrifice to boot!

Very nice!

Sorce