Styling a large nursery stock JBP thunderbird

[Hbhaska]

Hi

I recently purchased this large JBP for 70% off its listed price at an Armstrong garden center in San Diego. The variety is called and it’s a compact version of Japanese black pine. I’m thinking of just removing most of the large needles now and do some shaping by bending the trunk/split/raffia and wire. Then in mid summer, decandle so that the needles appearing will be short-ish. After this, wait until the next season for further work. What do you think? Thank you.

 

[bonsaichile]

This is not the best variety for bonsai. Their growth habit is coarse and the needles will always be larger than you wanted them to be. It is hard to compact the foliage. They tend to grow with a rounded head and usually have little or no branching down the trunk. Plan on a largr bonsai for this one, but dont hold your breath

 

[Adair M]

We’re assuming the variety is “Thunderhead”, not “Thunderbird”. Right?

 

[Hbhaska]

We’re assuming the variety is “Thunderhead”, not “Thunderbird”. Right?

It is thunderhead, it was my autocorrect. Sorry

 

[Hbhaska]

We’re assuming the variety is “Thunderhead”, not “Thunderbird”. Right?

Looking forward to your take on it, Adair. Thank you.

 

[Hbhaska]

This is not the best variety for bonsai. Their growth habit is coarse and the needles will always be larger than you wanted them to be. It is hard to compact the foliage. They tend to grow with a rounded head and usually have little or no branching down the trunk. Plan on a largr bonsai for this one, but dont hold your breath

I was planning on keeping it large. Thanks for your input on the variety. Again, it’s thunderhead not thunderbird, lol.

 

[jevanlewis]

I have one in my landscape. I would plan to use it for niwaki, because they require a much larger size than is reasonable for bonsai to look good.

 

[Johnathan]

Looking forward to your take on it, Adair. Thank you.

I'll save @Adair M the response time and +1 with @jevanlewis I got a good deal on 1 of these Thunderheads a couple seasons ago right when I was just getting started in bonsai. At that time I was told that these are not good for bonsai, by Adair and others. Like J Evan said, you could use it your landscape or just have it as a large container tree to practice techniques on, but a bonsai, not likely.

 

[Hbhaska]

I'll save @Adair M the response time and +1 with @jevanlewis I got a good deal on 1 of these Thunderheads a couple seasons ago right when I was just getting started in bonsai. At that time I was told that these are not good for bonsai, by Adair and others. Like J Evan said, you could use it your landscape or just have it as a large container tree to practice techniques on, but a bonsai, not likely.

I'll save @Adair M the response time and +1 with @jevanlewis I got a good deal on 1 of these Thunderheads a couple seasons ago right when I was just getting started in bonsai. At that time I was told that these are not good for bonsai, by Adair and others. Like J Evan said, you could use it your landscape or just have it as a large container tree to practice techniques on, but a bonsai, not likely.

Thank you, Johnathan. The more I think about this now, I lean towards pruning, shaping and keeping the tree in a big pot. Any suggestions on decandling, wiring and when major root work should be done will be greatly appreciated. Thank you again.

 

[Johnathan]

Thank you, Johnathan. The more I think about this now, I lean towards pruning, shaping and keeping the tree in a big pot. Any suggestions on decandling, wiring and when major root work should be done will be greatly appreciated. Thank you again.

Here is the link to my old thread. Ultimately I decided to return it to the store for something else, but this link does discuss the possibility of keeping the tree and different techniques to use etc etc

So this happened, and I need your help!

Well I was searching for marigolds at my fav nursery here in OKC and wandered into the 50% off section. I got a really big grey owl juniper (before realizing they were CLOSELY related to Eastern Red Cedar) from there a while back for $10 bucks so I figured why not have a look. A few cypress...

www.bonsainut.com

If you don't feel like reading that here is the initial response from Adair, but this was a good thread I think

 

[Adair M]

Yeah, I’m not a fan of Thunderhead for bonsai. For starters, it’ll be grafted. Then, the fat twigs...

 

[Hbhaska]

Here is the link to my old thread. Ultimately I decided to return it to the store for something else, but this link does discuss the possibility of keeping the tree and different techniques to use etc etc

So this happened, and I need your help!

Well I was searching for marigolds at my fav nursery here in OKC and wandered into the 50% off section. I got a really big grey owl juniper (before realizing they were CLOSELY related to Eastern Red Cedar) from there a while back for $10 bucks so I figured why not have a look. A few cypress...

www.bonsainut.com

If you don't feel like reading that here is the initial response from Adair, but this was a good thread I think

View attachment 304569

That thread seems very informative on first glance. I will see go through it and see if I can do something with the tree to make it a successful landscape newaki or a large bonsai or something along those lines. If things don’t seem like they are going to work out, I can always return it; just have to be careful I don’t do too much work on it. They have a lifetime warranty

 

[Hbhaska]

Yeah, I’m not a fan of Thunderhead for bonsai. For starters, it’ll be grafted. Then, the fat twigs...

Thank you, @Adair M

 

[Hbhaska]

One more thing - I would like to confess here that I almost checked
bonsainut before I paid for the tree. I say almost because in the back of my mind, I knew I would find something here at Bonsainut that would make me think twice before investing in a tree that I knew nothing about. But regardless, I pushed on thinking how bad can it be? First of, I’m getting this tree at a huge discount - a whopping 70%. And on top of that, I kept thinking that this particular tree claims to be a ‘dwarf’ variant. It’s just like all the other dwarf variants that I had gotten in the past without checking bonsainut - a dwarf mugo pine and a dwarf Japanese maple, a sharps pygmy. Both of these trees turned out to be potentially great bonsai species. But alas, not this one. I think I’m being philosophical but the best way to learn is by learning from the mistakes of others.

I will be sure to check ‘bonsainut’ next time when I’m almost purchasing something based on impulse

thank you all.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Plant in the yard and let grow.

 

[Johnathan]

One more thing - I would like to confess here that I almost checked
bonsainut before I paid for the tree. I say almost because in the back of my mind, I knew I would find something here at Bonsainut that would make me think twice before investing in a tree that I knew nothing about. But regardless, I pushed on thinking how bad can it be? First of, I’m getting this tree at a huge discount - a whopping 70%. And on top of that, I kept thinking that this particular tree claims to be a ‘dwarf’ variant. It’s just like all the other dwarf variants that I had gotten in the past without checking bonsainut - a dwarf mugo pine and a dwarf Japanese maple, a sharps pygmy. Both of these trees turned out to be potentially great bonsai species. But alas, not this one. I think I’m being philosophical but the best way to learn is by learning from the mistakes of others.

I will be sure to check ‘bonsainut’ next time when I’m almost purchasing something based on impulse

thank you all.

Hey it happens. I remember thinking this is the best JBP purchase in bonsai history lol

 

[roberthu]

Any tree can be beautiful. Just in different ways. You can always make it work.

 

[Hbhaska]

Thank you for your positive thoughts.

 

[Hbhaska]

Ok, thunderhead JBP has gone back to its safe havens at the nursery. I went back and forth between planting it in the yard as a Newaki or returning it back to the store. In the end I decided not to spend too much time on something that I’m not vested in. Thank you all for your comments.

 

[jevanlewis]

Anything in particular you are looking to replace it with, or was it just an impulse buy due to the discount?