hoop pine Araucaria cunninghamii

[Jamie]

hey guys, this is my hoop pine, was talking to jarrod the other night and he was intersted in seeing it, he hasnt seen many as bonsai.
right now it looks quite scraggy, i have to prune hard into this one but havent had the time. it responds well to this sort of treatment giving off more shoots and tighter foliage, i have ideas for this one but i dont think my missus weill let me do it cos its her tree.
anyways, here it is.
once the tree is trimmed it looks a hell of a lot neater, right now it just looks so full and lush i havent had the heart to chop into it
but when i chop into it i will create negative space which makes it look a lot better!

any comments or advice would be great.

oh by the way age of tree is 40-45 years of age i know this from when i bought it of the previous owner.
height is about 900m
width about 600m
roots at base is about 200mm wide

[Grant Bowie]

Hoop pine 1967 Mary W from Bendigo.jpg

Here is a photo of an Araucaria that was displayed at the National Bonsai and Penjing Collection of Australia for a year.

It was grown by Mary W of Bendigo and was a great favorite amongst the public.

Note the similarity in roots.

[Jamie]

hey grant, i did see this one on the website for that! and yes the similarity in the roots system seems to be a common thing for hoop pine as bonsai, the root system always reminds me of snakes twisting together in a big mess.
i like the way mary's one has a really thick trunk with good taper!
they all have the same problem with the foliage and branching or lack of branching as the foliage is the branching aswell if you know what i mean

[Grant Bowie]

The foliage does compact and tidy up quite well but I think you will allways need to grow it as a large bonsai, although that can be famous last words.

Has anyone tried to grow a mini or medium size Hoop Pine?

If not give it a go.

[Jamie]

i have found that the juvenile foliage can be quite compact and tight, regular trimming is needed to accomplish this though. and the more you trim into the foliage sytem ie. the way the needles grow off one main stem you find that they will grow 2 shoots where the cut is. if you can chase this back you can get a tighter system, but i like the weeping effect of the foliage. and no i havent seen any small ones as it takes years and years to get thickness on the and i dont think the foliage will compliment a small bonsai!

[Jamie]

one other thing i was gonig to say is if anyone else has hoop pine specimens feel free to post them on here, would love to see others ideas on them and how they go about everything in regards to bonsai-ing them.


regards jamie

[Jamie]

hey guys, i have had a win, talked the missus into letting me chop back hard into the foliage. the tree will thank me for this quite a bit in the next couple of months! it is quite a veracious grower for what it is

updated pic.

[Jarrod]

That's better, now I can see the trunk lines! You need to sort out the height of the two main trunks, same height, isn't good. Suggest bringing the height of the middle trunk down. Also the lowest branch/trunk on the right needs sorting out. It is the only trunk with movement, but that doesn't match the two main trunks, look forward to seeing this in 5 years!

[Jamie]

thanks for the comment jarrod! and yes i know the two main trunks are nearly the same height, the inside was is actually 2 inches lower than the outside one but the foliage is covering that up, the little trunk with movement is going to be followed by the little straight trunk, or i am going to bring that little one back in. i bent it out because it got lost in the foliage, so i should be able to bring it back some

[Jamie]

here is a little update, after it grew back out from the last trim up it ended up looking like the first shots again, so instead of asking the wife, i just went and trimmed it right back getting ready to enter it for the aus native aged section. i will be getting some nice moss for it and maybe even think about a different pot as this one is getting a bit old and i have never liked it. i am thinking something a little freeform for it. it hasnt had a change of pot in probly 30 years.
i have done a repot since i have had it though.

hoop pine 002.jpg

jamie

[Jamie]

here is an update of the tree it has been entered into the australian natives category one so i will post the updated pic of it here aswell, it is a better pic

Hpine1.jpg

i think the hoop pine is an underrated species for bonsai due to its weeping habit, this can be over come as you can see and they are rather fast growing when it comes to foliage, if you wanted to make a smaller tree i would suggest getting a tree with a bigger trunk and chopping back down low, they generally have low branches.

jamie