I received this Austrian Black Pine (Pinus nigra) into my possession in early 2004. It was collected in Austria in 2001 by an well-known bonsai artist and respected friend of mine. He performed the actual collection of the tree and the aftercare as it should be done, so I had a very healthy tree!

I felt very lucky to acquire this tree, and I decided that it would be a perfect tree to use for an important demonstration I had in the "Joy of Bonsai 2005," held in Bath, U.K.

"Two views of the Pine (before)"

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pic.1: Front of the tree.

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pic.2: Back of the tree.

"Details of a challenging branch"

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pic.3: The branch on the front right side of the tree is the main branch to work with. Bending it into position would be a challenging problem to overcome: it was very old branch and had a shari running along almost the whole length.

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pic.4: The year before the demo, I made a start by bending the cracking old branch more or less into the right position. To do this delicate work, I used a small piece off wood as a shim to carefully lift the branch a little bit upwards toward its future position and hold it there. Every now and then, I changed the shim with a wider one, and before I had to go on my long trip to the U.K., the branch was already at the right height to work with.

"The Second Day"

On the second day of the demonstration, I was anxious to get started on this wonderful tree. To prepare it for transport, it was secured carefully to the plastic tub it was in, so no damage could happen during the long trip or later, when I would work on it.

"Arranging the branch"

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pic.5: The delicate, old branch was tightly wrapped with wet raffia. Then four lengths of copper wire were aligned along the length of the part I needed to bend. This layer was then covered with another layer off wet raffia.

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pic.6: Then copper wire was applied in the usual way. I felt these steps should be enough to protect the old branch.

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pic.7: In several stages, the branch is gently brought in to the right position.

"The Deadwood"

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pic.8: Working on the deadwood. That kid behind me was not so impressed!

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pic.9: Creating the general shapes on the main jin off the tree. Here you can see clearly how I positioned the tree in the plastic tub.

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pic.10: I not only worked with raffia on this tree, I also used tape and normal bandage to protect branches from breaking.

"Finished with this step"

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pic.11: A not-so-good picture of the finished tree. But, I was pleased with this result; the tree finished as I had visualised, so now she would get a whole growing season to recover from it all...

"Repotting - April 2006"

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pic.12: In April 2006 i took the tree out off it container to check the condition off the roots. Because I did not collect it myself, I only could guess what there was underground. Well, I had nothing to worry, all credit to my friend who put it in this pot.

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pic.13: He had cut off all the to thick roots and placed the tree firmly on a piece off Tempex. (Tempex is a brick of polyurethane foam - Ed.) The roots had all grown nicely sideways.

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pic.14: I had only to untangle the roots a little and cut off some the dead stumps he'd left.

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pic.15: So I was able to put the tree in an even smaller pot than I was hoping for. It is not ideally shaped, but it will do for the next couple of years, leaving plenty of time to find one that's just right!

"The Future - May 2006"

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In May, 2006 I took this picture. As you can see, she is doing just fine in her new pot. I am very pleased with how she looks right now. All emphasis lies on her lovely bark and movement. The foliage layers are there only to frame her lovely lines! The jin will be worked on later when the wood has thoroghly dried, and I feel ready to do it.

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Here's a virtual I made of how she might look next year.

I hope you like what I have done up to now? I'm sure enjoying it so far!

Regards,

Hans van Meer.


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Hi Hans,

I really enjoy reading your posts and following a trees progression. Great work. I can't wait to see what the tree will look like next year.

All the best,

Aaron

That is a stout little pine, like Aron I really enjoy these progression post!

Rich

Fantastic material and fantastic work, Hans. Thanks for sharing.
I cant' wait to see it in a year or two!

pootsie

Thanks for posting this, Hans! I am sure it was exactly the kind of thing Al Keppler was hoping to see in his "It's about time" post. Seeing how these trees develop over time will be an inspiration to us all. I appreciate how your patience in positioning the key branch made this restyling possible.

Regards,

Matt

Absolutely Matt! Nice work Hans. That is a sweet tree.

I would be interested at what altitude these trees are collected at, and do they respond favorably to the lower altitude?

Regards, Al

Thanks everybody, I'm glad you like how she is looking now. It was a challenging styling, this little tree is so old and precious that you really have to think how much the tree can tolerate.
This tree was collected in east Austria at 2000 meter. It was collected by an expert who was able to collect it with plenty off roots. The after care was provided at his place in Austria at 750 meter from 2001 until 2004 when she got into my possession. She was left alone to adjust in my garden in Holland -16 meter for more than a year, so she had plenty off time to adjust to the low altitude. The only thing that happened was that she received to much rain in that year (it rains a lot in Holland.), so she had long candles when i started to work on here. This was no problem though, as this demo was in May i just cut off all of the long candles leaving only the weak ones on the tree. I have found that Mugo's don't suffer from low altitudes as long that you give them plenty off time to recover from collecting and to adjust to there new environment.
Hans.