AusBonsai

Today, strangely enough it was raining in Melbourne. I decided to rewire a little 30yo black pine i have been working on for a while. I originally took possession of it when it was in poor health. I nursed it back to health and started to look towards styling it. I had severe wire scars on the upper half of the tree and as a result some ugly bulges and lumps. I rectified this by cutting off the ugly top half.

I have since started the needle reduction and back budding process in the hope to improve the ramification on the old branches while i re grow the apex. The new apex is considerable lower than the initial trees apex which gives the old trunk more oomph. Today i rewired the tree over 3 or so hours and below is the result. I am going to continue growing the long first branch until it becomes ridiculously long like some of the trees you see in the Kokufu albums. I have always liked those trees and i am always drawn to them in the albums. I will keep the other branches pretty much within there current outlines. That being said, the apex and top couple of branches need to do some filling out to form a nice rounded crown.

I am happy to receive comments and criticism both good and bad. Just don't expect me to agree with everything . Also bear in mind that the tree has not had any old needles removed yet as the new growth from the candle removal phase is still to young, therefore some of the branches appear really dense while others are very lean. There is still a lot of work to go on this pine, (like adjusting the exit angles of some of the branches) but it should be a nice tree in a few years time. Photos are below. Please forgive the bad quality of them... the afters in particular look like they were taken in the 70's and left outside in the weather till now !

Hi Jo, Looks good from last time I saw it in fact it would look even better on my bench nice work.
John

(You obviously didn"t make it today me either)

Nice work Jow, thanks for sharing!
Personally, I feel that the primary branches need more movement. Particularly the first branch which looks unnaturally straight.
It's going to look fantastic when you complete your plan for it.
Regards,
Steven

And here is a bad virtual of how i would like to see it in the future.
Nah, i didn't make it.. had to take a someone to the airport......

AusBonsai wrote:Nice work Jow, thanks for sharing!
Personally, I feel that the primary branches need more movement. Particularly the first branch which looks unnaturally straight.
It's going to look fantastic when you complete your plan for it.
Regards,
Steven

I agree about how straight the branch looks currently. but.... i plan on growing it to twice its current length and from this length onwards it should have a slight upward bend. I updated the future pic and made the branch longer to illustrate what i mean.... I know its not everyone's cup of tea but it will be a really different tree to most around the traps.

Would make a nice cascade....

Asus101 wrote:Would make a nice cascade....

You must have a plan in place to grow these trees. Sacrifice branches have a purpose not an excuse.
B.

Hi guys,
don't want to redirect your thread, but these photos may be of interest. The Japanese love their huge primary branches.
One of these trees is at the Golden Pavilion the other at a Kinashi nursery.
Don't be mistaken into thinking these are benches of young black pine, they are all part of the primary branch for which support benches have been made
cheers
Dave
By the way, not overly impressed with the oversized primary on the bonsai, but think it's a great little tree with it shortened.

Of course, but plans can change..

Brad Loma wrote:

Asus101 wrote:Would make a nice cascade....

You must have a plan in place to grow these trees. Sacrifice branches have a purpose not an excuse.
B.

Dave54 wrote:Hi guys,
don't want to redirect your thread, but these photos may be of interest. The Japanese love their huge primary branches.
One of these trees is at the Golden Pavilion the other at a Kinashi nursery.
Don't be mistaken into thinking these are benches of young black pine, they are all part of the primary branch for which support benches have been made
cheers
Dave
By the way, not overly impressed with the oversized primary on the bonsai, but think it's a great little tree with it shortened.

Why do they do this?

Crikey1
they do it so that they can say that they have a bigger one than the bloke up the road. WHY ELSE
Cheers
Dave

I see so many from japan, yet so few in European bonsai. Just cant work out why.

as always very nice work on a great little tree jow. i can see where you are coming from and its true to the style. you have just inspired me to chop one of mine. i look forward to the future. john; back off you got plenty good on your benches, give the rest of us a break.

Dave54 wrote:Hi guys,
don't want to redirect your thread, but these photos may be of interest. The Japanese love their huge primary branches.
One of these trees is at the Golden Pavilion the other at a Kinashi nursery.
Don't be mistaken into thinking these are benches of young black pine, they are all part of the primary branch for which support benches have been made
cheers
Dave
By the way, not overly impressed with the oversized primary on the bonsai, but think it's a great little tree with it shortened.

I also was impressed by these trees in Japan... i loved how so many trees in parks and gardens were propped up like this as if to lend a helping hand to these old pines.

I agree that this tree would be a great little tree with the long branch shortened, but it would be just that, only great, not really all that different to all the other great trees around. With its long branch it will still be great tree but also different and memorable. Any way i can always cut it shorter down the track if i change my mind. At worst it will fatten the base nicely

Jow,
Lovely little JBP. Nice work on the wiring. The long primary branch isn't my personal cup of tea, but there is always room for individual taste. "De gustibus non est disputandem."

Chris

Just a quick update on this one....

I re-potted this spring and let it grow out strongly without much candle removal during the spring, only removing very strong candles. I did this so the tree could gain strength for next season after the stress of re-potting. As a result it ended up looking quiet messy. After doing some early autumn needle work it was time to wire. The following photos are a before an after of the days work.
before
and after a bit of wiring.

Even though for the most part the trees foliage only got one flush of growth, there has been some back-budding and an overall building of te foliage, especially in the apex. Hopefully in another two seasons the apex will be formed and it will then begin to be ramified.