Whats A Japanese Black Pine Worth? Looking To Buy Need Advice

dustin

Ive been studying maintenance and care of the japanese black pine for a while now. Im now looking to purchase a semi established and trained tree to learn and grow with. With just starting to really shop for this type of tree, Im seeing pretty drastic differences in price and Im a little confused as to the reasoning behind its value.

I like the smaller styles, with the fat trunks and good rootage, as opposed to the more informal upright pines. Im attaching some pics of what Im talking about.

Id really like to hear some prices people have paid for these trees and reasonings behind the prices. Mainly in relation to variety of pine and availability. As the reasons Im getting from dealers for the high costs is "they are just hard to come by" and "You cant get these anymore". Not so much about the trees potential due to its current styling, if you know what I mean. I just cant judge whats a good price with pines.

Thanks for any input in this.

Attached Images

pine1.jpg (14.8 KB, 385 views)

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dustin

another image of a small pine like the ones Im looking at locally.

Attached Images

pine 2.jpg (25.5 KB, 370 views)

Carl_Bergstrom

Hard to tell from those photos, dustin, but both trees look rather hideously wire-scarred right on the main trunk.

-Carl

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dustin

I see the wire scars your talking about, no doubt they are bad. But aside from that, as far as size and feel of the tree, pretend you dont see wire scars. What would a fair price be around. I realize this is a complex question, I dont expect a, oh this tree should be 100 bucks. However, Im seeing prices on trees like the ones posted, as far as size and look, going from between 250 and 500 dollars. They are failry young trees, 10-12 years, and they have been styled but need work.

One set of trees has the explaination that they where imported from Japan, and the imports are hard to get and declining so they are expensive. Other reasons I get are that the black pine has to be trained very early on in its development to properly dwarf the tree into bonsai. These both seem like saleman type answers to me. Am I wrong in thinking this and that these prices are too high?

Sorry for rambling but Im wanting one bad but dont want to pay more than I should.

rockm

You can't ignore the wire scars. They will be there for a very very long time. They lessen the value of the tree, even if it's imported.

rowan57

wow even converted to £'s thats expensive, i would probably pay upto $250 tops for the first tree and $200 for the 2nd, mainly because the second needs styling work doing to it, and the first one will be a year or few until it looks filled out

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FredL

Dustin, these trees bring it back to me why I decided to start from scratch and collect local trees and trees intended for landscaping from Walmart and Lowe's. As has been mentioned earlier, they will require years before the scars from earlier wiring will be healed and, even if the scars were not such a major problem, it's still very difficult for me to imagine any plan for them that won't require many years for a Bonsai to emerge from either. I'm not sure I'd want to start from either, at any price.

Well, that's not really fair; either would be a better starting point than a 1 gallon J. Black Pine grown for landscaping purposes, but not that much better. How much better. Well, I'm not an experienced "tree appraiser", so I can't say what they'd be valued at for, say, insurance or estate valuation purposes. I can only say what they'd be worth to me.

There's no way I'd pay more than about $40 each.

Fred

dustin

The trees Im looking at dont have any wire scars, why I was asking to ignore them.

These pics are just examples of close to what they look like. Neither have any scars to speak of.

rowan, thanks for the numbers. So as close to 200 as I can get for a smallish black pine(1.5-2 inch trunk) with decent branching and no wire scars is a good bet then?

This is pretty expensive compared to other trees, hence my lack of knowledge on how to judge pricing on them.
Another example, The ones Im pricing now are much more impressive than this tree, and the tree pictured here is going for $190 bucks shipped.

Attached Images

pine 3.jpg (24.4 KB, 302 views)

FredL

Dustin, I'd have to ask you how long it would take to get the average 1 gallon landscaping tree to this stage. Two years? That would be my guess. Three, max. Now, landscaping trees which have been developed for two or three in larger containers should offer a reasonable standard of comparison. I don't think they'd be this expensive.

Fred