AusBonsai

I have spent a little bit of time in the last month or so looking at sourcing JBP seed in Australia, and I am hitting a lot of dead ends. Does anybody know where I might be able to pick some up from?

I’m not looking for hundreds, my motivation to grow from seed stems both from the educational/personal satisfaction you get from starting from scratch... and I also have an interest in entering the 6 year JBP contest that has been organised on the Bonsai Nut forum (link below) - cos a competition run over 6 years where you have to start a pine from seed just seems a bit insane, so naturally... I want IN!!

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/contest-rules.30191/

Would love to know where I can get maybe a dozen or so seeds from - I’m not greedy!!

Speaking of competitions, there's one being run by the National Arboretum as well:
https://www.nationalarboretum.act.gov.a ... prize-2023

Can't help with JBP seeds though, soz

Ryceman3 wrote:I have spent a little bit of time in the last month or so looking at sourcing JBP seed in Australia, and I am hitting a lot of dead ends. Does anybody know where I might be able to pick some up from?

I’m not looking for hundreds, my motivation to grow from seed stems both from the educational/personal satisfaction you get from starting from scratch... and I also have an interest in entering the 6 year JBP contest that has been organised on the Bonsai Nut forum (link below) - cos a competition run over 6 years where you have to start a pine from seed just seems a bit insane, so naturally... I want IN!!

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/contest-rules.30191/

Would love to know where I can get maybe a dozen or so seeds from - I’m not greedy!!

Which part of Melbourne are you in?

Have you tried collecting the pine cones for seeds?

https://bonsaitonight.com/2016/08/17/gr ... pine-seed/

I've seen plenty of pine trees around Melbourne and surroundings, just not too sure on the species.

Ryceman3 wrote:Would love to know where I can get maybe a dozen or so seeds from - I’m not greedy!!

Ditto. The techniques for germinating and growing are everywhere in the literature but actually sourcing the seed nationally seems quite difficult

I've seen plenty of pine trees around Melbourne and surroundings, just not too sure on the species.

Unfortunately Ryceman wants Japanese Black pines Phil so seed from any old pine won't do. JBP is not very common as plantings here in Aus. Parks tend to have European and American species and JBP is usually far too big for home gardens.

JBP seed is quite hard to get here since quarantine put a ban on importing pine seed. I believe it was to prevent another disease - pine canker - from hitching a ride here in seed packets. No cones on my JBP seed tree this year so I can't help either but I do have a few seedlings from last year.

You'll likely struggle to find seeds in Melbourne, you really need to find a tree with a pinecone growing on it and harvest from that. It's not unheard of but going to be very very hard. The other option would be to contact a bonsai nursery and see if they are propagating their own trees from seed and see if they will part with a seedling saving you finding the seed and germinating it.

As mentioned above the vast majority of pines in Melbourne are not JBP though i believe there are a few floating around the Mt Dandenong area if you look hard enough. Can't say i've personally seen them but supposedly they are there.

Yes, Tim, JBP are there. The problem is accurately identifying them from the hundreds of other species that are also grown here.
I collected some seed from trees at Falls Creek a few years ago. The trees looked like JBP should. The seedlings look a lot like other JBP I have grown but are they JBP??? Almost impossible to be sure because so many pine species are very similar.

shibui wrote:Yes, Tim, JBP are there. The problem is accurately identifying them from the hundreds of other species that are also grown here.
I collected some seed from trees at Falls Creek a few years ago. The trees looked like JBP should. The seedlings look a lot like other JBP I have grown but are they JBP??? Almost impossible to be sure because so many pine species are very similar.

Yep agreed it is a pain. I'm studying horticulture and part of that is identification, did a whole section just on conifer and pine identification and i still struggle to identify without a botanical key, a sample in one hand and a stiff drink in the other. You pretty much need the whole lot from needle groups, bud shape and colour as well as measurements of the cone to have any hope of getting to within 50% sure of what it is you are holding.

Thanks to all for their ... at least the difficulty I seemed to experience wasn’t imagined!
I have been told in my research that JBP trees do exist in some parks/gardens in Melbourne, but as they’re not labelled and I’m not horticulurally proficient in terms of ID I wouldn’t ever be 100% sure I was collecting the “right” seeds/cones, and unfortunately for this competition (and my self satisfaction) I need to start with seed... seedlings don’t cut it (although I do have a few of those now thanks to my investigation)!
The ban on importing seed has killed me... but the search continues! Thanks Mel, seephil, terryb, Shibui and TimS for your responses.

I get mine for a couple of bucks off ebay - I now have a heap of beautiful JBP's.

Just have to pretend you don't see where they originate from - but I can tell you the popular US and UK sellers have the best seed, and they seem to cross borders without any problem in the mail.

wrcmad wrote:I get mine for a couple of bucks off ebay - I now have a heap of beautiful JBP's.

Just have to pretend you don't see where they originate from - but I can tell you the popular US and UK sellers have the best seed, and they seem to cross borders without any problem in the mail.

I did wonder about this???!!?
A very generous member of this forum has offered to send me some so I don’t need to go down that track, I’m happy with that.
Thanks again to my JBP donor. I’ll be looking after those seeds like gold and I’ll be sure to get a thread going once I get up and running....!

Ive been looking at the ebay sellers for jbp seeds and i believe there is an Australian seller offering them.ive been looking for seeds as well in canberra but to no success yet. Havent brought from the ebay seller yet though.

Im looking for some JBP seeds also, can anyone point me in the right direction?

I resorted to ebay as wanted to enter the comp... but they probably won't germinate