A lovely Japanese White Pine

I acquired a really lovely Japanese White Pine which had been in the care of a well known Bonsai grower for some time. It had become too large for him to manage in his 80's having had it "since the first cash machine appeared in Sheffield". Having researched this I make it mid 1970's. Coincidentally it was acquired by him in similar circumstances, having bought the collection of an elderly man for whom it had become too much work - and who knows how long he had that tree in the UK?

Front view

Rear view

 

It sat in my garden just being watered and turned for a season while I assessed and admired it. The needle length when I first received it was good but could definitely be made shorter with ramification and not too much water/prudent feed regime. It's a fair sized tree and really only wanted some refinement to make it more like the image in my head. There was also some evidence of inner budding/shoots which clearly needed some light to get to them before they died back....a job for off-season. You could see that the branches were beginning to point skywards - a job for some guys and wire too....

Also note above the super short candle length. The candles didn't extend at all, just the needles which ended up being only about 2/3rds the length of the last years grow. SUPER!

After a strong summers growth I decided to strip back the needles to 5-8 pairs on strong sections, and progressively more on weaker areas to ensure balanced growth and to allow light to the inner buds. The foliage was dense and heavy up top and I was concerned it may start to weaken the bottom. It was also clearly needing a wiring but first of all I needed to see what was going on in there....

Front view

Rear view

Here we go then...

 

 Main pad thinned...(took HOURS)

This took more than one session...many hours over many days!

 

part thinned crown...

 

 Looks congested. Needs pruning before wiring....

 

now the last 2 seasons needles are off, the new length is really quite nice

 

I'll continue this post on another day, to show how I placed branches and created a more balanced design.

Before I sign off, I'd highly recommend the Bonsai Today Master's Series book on Pines - it's an incredible resource and shocases the various methods and styles of Japan's most revered artists. I have no commercial interest in the book, just purely an academic one and it's the best I've found for JWP & JBP development articles.

Thanks for reading, let me know if you have any questions in the comments below..