Mexican pine, Pinus patula.

Grant Bowie · Post by **Grant Bowie** » July 26th, 2013, 7:21 pm

Mexican pine, Pinus patula.

What do you reckon; wire tips up or down?

It is after all a weeping pine.

Any experience out there?

Grant

time8theuniverse · Post by **time8theuniverse** » July 26th, 2013, 7:44 pm

Google images makes it look like the needles drop rather than the apex of the branch. So tips still up unless the tree is destined for something else.

I hadn't seen these before and now I'm interested.

any more information?

Grant Bowie · Post by **Grant Bowie** » July 26th, 2013, 7:51 pm

time8theuniverse wrote:Google images makes it look like the needles drop rather than the apex of the branch. So tips still up unless the tree is destined for something else.

I hadn't seen these before and now I'm interested. any more information?

I have a very old one which I am overhauling. You are correct that the needles droop but branch tips and branches themselves also seem to eventually droop as well; hence the dilemma.

Anyone got a good one?

Grant

Grant Bowie · Post by **Grant Bowie** » July 26th, 2013, 8:17 pm

Its quite a big pine which, due to neglect and starvation, actually has quite short needles rather than the usual.

A lovely fat trunk, lots of movement in the trunk and branches and a lovely flaky bark (like an old Red pine).

This is it partway through wiring and styling.

Mexican pine.JPG

Close up.JPG

time8theuniverse · Post by **time8theuniverse** » July 27th, 2013, 12:12 pm

I ordered some seeds for one of these pines last night. It should be interesting to play with, in a fair few years.

Having seen the tree now I am changing my opinion to wiring all the tips down. Its stuck halfway between at the moment (because your working on it) and it doesn't quite work as a narrative for the tree.

I do like the slouched look of the tree from the top right to the bottom left.

alpineart · Post by **alpineart** » July 28th, 2013, 9:00 am

Hi Grant , while the Patula is called a weeping pine its not exactly that .The growth habit up here in the test plots in like flag poles , discarding branches as the grow leaving a clean trunk and only having the upper most canopy . Out in the open the grow more upright or above horizontal in the branches .

The weeping habit is in the Needle which does give an impression that they actually are weeping rather than growing upright .The length and weight of the needles does pull the tips down in most case the whorls a in groups of 5 however from what i have seen here it doesn't weight the branches down .

I had a dozen here i collected quite a few years ago , some now reside in Sydney and i lost a few last year .I think there maybe 1 or 2 left but they are small . They still head skyward even when young and loaded with needles .

Cheers Alpine

Grant Bowie · Post by **Grant Bowie** » July 28th, 2013, 4:29 pm

Cheers,

Thanks for your info.

I was intending to wire the tips up as per usual but was wondering if anyone had tried anything different.

They will bud back freely;they seem to be very much like a Japanese Red pine otherwise.

Grant

Grant Bowie · Post by **Grant Bowie** » July 30th, 2013, 4:21 pm

IMG_5404.JPG

After a few(in fact a lot more) hours this is about as far as I can get it at the moment.

I expect it to bud back and in the future I will shorten some of the growth and make more compact.

Still a long way to go. left hand side near the top is very stretched.

Grant

Jow · Post by **Jow** » July 30th, 2013, 8:14 pm

Grafting candidate?

Grant Bowie · Post by **Grant Bowie** » July 30th, 2013, 9:39 pm

Jow wrote:Grafting candidate?

Could do in-arch grafting if it fails to bud back.

grant

Boics · Post by **Boics** » July 30th, 2013, 10:01 pm

Certainly come along way Grant.

Fantastic pot and tree combo I reckon too.

There are some "grouped" areas of branching that may be less than ideal but hey I'm only being picky - this is a great looking tree.

Grant Bowie · Post by **Grant Bowie** » November 12th, 2013, 9:30 pm

Update,

This tree is growing and budding back profusely. I am very happy with its progress. There are single and double flush pines but this might be one of the 2 1/2 or triple flush pines(Japanese black pine in Sydney can put out 2 1/2 flushes per year for instance; and an article I read many years ago which showed triple flushing in Southern California)

It is also behaving a little like a radiata pine; in some areas where I have pinched short the excessive growth; it has already set a new bud and is starting to power on as if nothing happened. This is also happening with radiata at the moment.

If needle size can be managed then it should be a good candidate for bonsai.

Grant

Rory · Post by **Rory** » November 12th, 2013, 10:51 pm

Wow, very nice pine. I love your trees .... and your name. We called our son Bowie.... we just loved the name. Primarily because it sounded so unique... and because of David Bowie and how much I admired him as an artist / actor. Getting off topic though... very nice pine, it is going to look very nice in years to come.

And I really especially love your hawthorn from the wild. Such elegance!

treeman · Post by **treeman** » November 13th, 2013, 11:36 am

I have one which I grew from seed about 25 years ago. It has great bark but that's about the only good feature about this species. (unless you wanted a very very ....very large tree...Like 2 meters high) The needles on mine are still about 15cm long. And starving it, needle reduction, pinching etc will not work. Maybe mine is not a patula???, but its branches do not ramify very well. Though the trunk thickens nicely. I won't be starting another one.

Grant Bowie · Post by **Grant Bowie** » November 13th, 2013, 1:05 pm

treeman wrote:I have one which I grew from seed about 25 years ago. It has great bark but that's about the only good feature about this species. (unless you wanted a very very ....very large tree...Like 2 meters high) The needles on mine are still about 15cm long. And starving it, needle reduction, pinching etc will not work. Maybe mine is not a patula???, but its branches do not ramify very well. Though the trunk thickens nicely. I won't be starting another one.

This one has got good ramification. Did you do a full candle removal at any stage?

grant

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