[Shane] Japanese Black Pine 2

[Shane]

Source: Another leftover whip from Don Deluca's demo at AABC 2012. He did no styling on this, and I've only slip potted into this training pot.
Cost: The same beer
Height: 125cm
Probably even harder to get down to 250mm, but we'll see.

[Shane]

Staying alive...doop doop doop doop...Staying alive. Might get a chance to work on my second JBP in a few weeks, but for now...Staying alive...

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[Shane]

On Thursday night, I finally got around to a first styling for this tree, whilst watching a special on Joe Strummer. Took two sessions in the week to just get the raffia and tape on. So excited by this tree now it is a cascade. Deliberately, have the tree coming behind and under where the pot will be; only touches the pot because I've pulled the loop in so tight.

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[Neli]

I like it a lot. Love the movement.

[Shane]

Thanks Neli!

[Shane]

My progress on this cascade in the last 3 months has been to remove a back branch where I had a choice of three at a whorl, and to cut the candles and pluck needles that were growing downwards. I am tempted to take the rafia and wire off, but on another whip--not in this comp--the tree reverted to an upright position within a couple of weeks of removing the wire, so I probably won't yet!

[Shane]

Haven't done anything to my pines except start to use a nitrogen free fertiliser mix (using two products, one potash and the other 'super phosphate'). And suddenly I get yellowing needles, and not 3 year old growth, it's this year's needles...brrr. I have removed the fertiliser pod today.

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[Shane]

This pine recovered, but given the result of removing the wire from my other jbp whip today (the shape didn't hold), I'm loath to take the wire off yet.

[Shane]

In August 2014, I repotted this Japanese black pine cascade into its cascade pot for the first time.

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[Shane]

On 20 Sept, I started preparing the tree for the final photos, by removing the sparky tape, wire and raffia that had been recommended to me. It had certainly worked, in that the tree had not snapped, but it was extremely difficult to remove, given I still wanted to keep the wire on. Basically had to rewrire.

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It was at this point that I realised I had potted the tree taller than the 250mm limit, and had to do a late repot to bring it back under. It now sits at about 23cm above the rim of the pot. I also removed another branch from the mid point, to prevent future swelling.

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Minor tweaking to the bends and branch positioning brings me to the final photos, today, for my Japanese black pine cascade:

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This has been my favourite competition tree to look at during the comp, as I brought it inside often. It is developing nice back budding and I should be able to shorten some of those branches soon. The needles will eventually shorten. Hope you like it as much as I do.