Books About Pines

Lesley

Hello!
I'm a new student of this art and I was going to swear off pines and conifers until my skills improved, but I somehow acquired them anyway. Friends and " gotta try that one" and "oh, look there's a Mugo - I've gotta have it ...
so... here I am without a clue and I need guidance! I have read articles on the internet about pine care, sounds complicated, but I really would like a book that I can go back to at nite. Any recommendations out there
I'd really appreciate the help!

Thanks, Lesley

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Ladybug

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bnsaijim

Steve Pilacik has a book, generally thought to be so-so. There are a lot of articles also in the bonsai mags...

One draw back to books is that they are written from one perspective- i.e., the author's, who may or not be from an area with a similar climate... Also some who are set out as experts are really just regurgitating the same stuff that they've read...

For example- growing pines in TX is vastly different from when I was in PA... Some varieties simply will not survive. I've had to alter my soil, my fertilizer regime... Timing of the activities differs drastically- I have a very mild climate so my work starts sooner, and can actually be repeated more than once in a given year, unlike in the books and many magazine articles.

What I would recommend is getting in touch with Bill Valavanis of "International Bonsai". He's run articles about pine management for about the last year or so. They teach the "signs" that indicate it's time for a given technique- rather than blindly following a calender.

Jim Stone
TX

Lesley

bnsaijim (Jim S),

Thanks for your input. You raised some good points. I too live in a mild climate. I'll try to find Bill Valavanis' articles at International Bonsai Too!

Lesley

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Ladybug

bnsaijim

Lesley,

Seeing you're in California, I'd bet there's some good locally written material, i.e., Golden Statements, that have focussed on pines.

RIPS? AL?

Come to think of it Naka discusses pines in his book(s)...

Jim

FredL

Lesley, have you looked at John Naka's Bonsai Techniques I? This is the classic; best single book ever written on Bonsai imho. It contains a whole lot specifically about pines and was written in California.

Fred

weirdowl

Lesley,
I have the Steve Pilacik book and from a beginner's point of view it seems like it will be pretty helpful. The one main thing I wanted to learn about from the book was how to pinch and prune. It covers this with some detailed drawings and a few paragraphs or so. It also goes over selection, grafting, development, general care...etc. It's not a big book. 46 pages altogether and each subject is limited to only a few pages, but it did answer a lot of questions for me. $15.95 was what I paid.
Oh yeah, I don't have any of the pine issues of International Bonsai but I recently bought an issue on conifers and was very pleased. If the pine issues are as good as the conifer issue I got then it's definitely more than worth it. For $7.50, shipping included, you can't go wrong.

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weirdowl