AusBonsai

Hi all,

I managed to get my hands on a pine that has been goin since 1998.

I am unsure as to the exact type of pine (it has two needles from each bud) so i am hoping to get some help identifying so i can read up on how to care and style it. Any style ideas is always handy to

Looks to be a Japanese black pine,
Style is difficult to change at the moment as there is not a lot of foliage. It is possible a future tree might be developed using the first branch only, I would wire all branches trying to angle them a little downward and lots of bends to match the charachter of the trunk. Lots of feed and let it grow for a while to develop more foliage hopefully new buds and more options.

Thanks Gerard,

So i will wire it the first chance i get, the main branches are pretty thick so may require some work to get them to bend if at all. So you are saying leave all the foliage as is for now and just feed and leave for a year or two before touching it?

Personally, I would hide the cutting implements, and just work on it as is. Develop the apex and pads then have a think about reducing it. I like the structure as is, just needs a few years of refinement. Nice tree to work on.

Any serious design transformations should be done in winter, pines bleed too much when you prune this time of year.
It is OK to remove a few candles in Dec,
A few weeks after removing candles you should get new buds where the candle was, remove some of these trying to keep only two buds on each branch tip.