Ideas On This. I'm Lost.....

tree bender

What can I do to this tree to make it look cool? I have a Japanese Black Pine starter that is like the ones in this pic.

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black_pine.jpg (17.2 KB, 186 views)

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Earl

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think there is too much you can do with starters like these but let them grow. In several years you will have some nice material but they just are not large enough to do anything with right now. Get it out of the little plastic pot, into a large planting box or in the ground.

If you are new at this, go out and buy some 5 gallon junipers at the local Home Depot or some such store. They are large enough to have some fun with and get some good bonsai started--look at the recent contest thread.

Good luck! Earl

TreeBay

One thing you might try with young, whiplike material, if you have a few to experiment with, is to create a "Squashed" shohin bonsai. By wrapping the trunk in Raffia to avoid breakage, then wiring the trunk securely with copper wire and crumpling the tree into a ball, you can get some very interesting contorted growth in a short time (2-3 years). Later you can remove the wire and it will have created an artificial lifeline in the trunk.

Here's one of Jim Gremel's squashed junipers, probably a six year project at the time this was taken:

http://pictures.bonsaitalk.com/showphoto.php?photo=6

I have seen a similar technique used with Japanese black pine saplings, so it should work similarly.

Regards,

Matt

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FredL

Treebender, these are very pretty young Black Pines with the potential to give you alot of enjoyment over many years. You will, however, have to totally change your frame of reference in respect to time in working with them. For my part, I do not see this as a problem at all, but many will tell you to forget them and try something else. My counsel is go ahead and work with them, but add some more trees to your collection that will respond in a shorter time frame. You are looking at an absolute minimum of 12-15 years of effort to produce much of anything with them and over at Evergreengardenworks.com, one of the very best sites for bonsai information on the web,we are told that we should be thinking in terms of FIFTY YEARS to produce real bonsai from such material.

You should be aware that development of bonsai from seedlings requires a rather different "mental model" than styling bonsai from fully developed pre-bonsai material or restyling a mature bonsai. At this time, you should be thinking in terms, not of creating bonsai with these trees, but developing them into good quality bonsai material. On this forum, Glenn "Ripsgreentrees" is pretty good at that and among books and authors, John Naka's "Bonsai Techniques I" has a very fine section on the development of Japanese Black Pine seedlings. Also, the aforementioned Evergreengardenworks.com has an excellent section on the subject as well as many otherr articles which I'll bet you'll find interesting and helpful.

My suggestion would be not to become discouraged but accept a realistic understanding of what's involved in what you are doing. I am working with alot of material that is not very far along, but is a constant joy to watch develop and dream about. It is, at least to me, endlessly fascinating to see immature trees devolop and change. In addition, you learn alot about taking care of trees in pots at a lot less expense than is associated with bona fide bonsai. You should be aware, however, that pines are probably the slowest trees to develop of any trees you might choose and you might want to add some trees that respond to pre-bonsai culture more quickly.

Best regards, Fred

ripsgreentree

Tree bender;
It would also be interesting to know where you are at in this nation as there are so many diffrent growing zones. What works for me in central California wont work for someone in Idaho or Maine.
The hardest lesson that the bonsai artest has to learn is to be patience and allow material to grow into the vision tht you have for the tree. Now if you do not want to wait for material to grow then you can buy older material that is closer to what you want.
I also find it very exciteing to watch seedlings develip. Tonight I will try to post some pictures that may help you to understand.

Glenn

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dbz12fan

Looks like you got this from Jewelnw on ebay.

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Vero Beach, Fl

tree bender

Thanks for the info all..... Yes I did get these starts from Jewelsnw.
I do have other trees to mess with. Hope to get their pics up soon so you guys can rip into me like wire on bark.
later

Lui

I received a couple of JBP whips from a friend of mine in September of 2001 and quickly wired them and drop them into big pots. here is a picture of both wired in 9-2001

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jbp 9-12-01.jpg (50.9 KB, 80 views)

Lui

these next 2 pics I took last night the trunks have more then doubled and are have bark.
These are the only JBP I have they are the ones Im learning on since large JBP cost a bundle. I think its best to grow with these particular species at the same time.

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jbp1 7-03.jpg (54.6 KB, 75 views)