AusBonsai

Noah, i'm one of the people who is/was hesitant to have a crack at Pines. I guess i feel i am a bit of a less knowledgable bonsai hack who should be working on species other than the 'kings of bonsai'. But after seing Leigh Taafe at BTIT in Mt Evelyn on Saturday, and your description of them not being any harder than Figs etc, i'm raring to sink my teeth into them!
Thanks...

Whe i first started out and that waesent too long ago at all i saw my mate who owned a nursey and the 20-30 years old JBP he had there growing i knew i wanted to own this species. I watched him and did a couple of lessions with him over a year or so at autumn for needle thinning , pruning and summer for candle piching bud selection etc. If you can get the timing right in your area and it does differ quite alot up and down the coast you will have nice trees in no time. letting the tree grow to achieve a thick trunk is vital but if you let the growth get too long and laggy you will have a time trying to get foliage back closer to the trunk. There must be balance when trunk growing. Good luck and im sure you will fall in love with them and yes Leigh has a habit of sucking you in and leaving with whatever species he was working on . Hows my crabapples going mate?
Craig yes i will shortly start to wire all my pines , I think i will have to take time off work. Whats the old saying "a bad day wiring is better than a good day at work"..........
i sold that red/ black hybred . I wish i hadnt but money talks . I do know of 4 more 20 years old plus still around and for sale . The bark is killer

I sometimes reflect with regret on the trees I have passed on years after the event. I am much more careful about what I discard these days with that hindsight
I try to spend 1 day a week wiring in does not always work out that way but I usually get at least 2-3 hours on the job, I like all my trees to be wired constantly.
Craig

gday craig,

i am very similar in that i like my trees to be wired in most instances, i only have a couple that i dont have wire on as i am now going with clip and grow on these, they are the clero. but the couple of pine i have have wire on them and i dont see them ever not being wired.

nice trees noah! to be honest your the one who got me into pine as i didnt think they would do to well up here until i seen yours and how they were going. you have some very nice pines mate, wheres the updates?

jamie