AusBonsai

I have had this 1975 Japanese Black Pine since 1985. It was in a bunch of Pines my Dad had grown from seed, and all were in 550mm grow pots. Not sure if it was my birthday or christmas, but he said I could pick one as my present. It had some low branching where the dead stumps are, and the trunk it has now was a branch only about 10 or 15mm thick. I progressed to chopping it back to that branch to grow the tree from it so I could have a small to medium Bonsai. During some periods of not enough attention to pruning, what I wanted was lost in typical Pine fashion as it grew too long and I lost needle growth closer to the trunk where I could get branches from. I have kept up its pruning in more recent years, but have never committed to anything. I have had 3 or 4 ideas over the years and have almost done it as a demo 4 or 5 times, but always left it on the shelf waiting for inspiration.

With the Tops weekend came the opportunity for me to do a workshop with Marc Noelanders, and I decided this was the perfect tree for it. I have not done a workshop with another artist for many years, although I have wanted to, as when interstate at AABC Conventions it is hard to take ot bring home the stock, and when here I have been busy with stuff, or running my own. I wa excited at the opportunity like I haven't been for a while, and decided to drive to Sydney for Tops so I could take my own tree. I had a great day among other keen artists, and spent 7 hours watching what they were doing and working on this tree.
I had so much fun working on this tree as I got to use heaps of techniques combined with Marc's vision. A huge thankyou to Marc for his ease of sharing knowledge and fun, and to Illawarra for the opportunity to do this. I am on a Bonsai high.

I have been having some technical issues on my blog so am unable to post at the moment, and I have more photos to add to this story when the time comes that I can again. The full process will be on display then as there are quite a few photos.

Tony

Looking forward to seeing its progression mate, I envy you being able to work on an old stock tree like this

I love it.

Your Dad was probably thinking. Bugger I forgot to get him a gift. Ahh I know I'll give him a tree. Here son pick one of these - he had plenty of others.

Now a few years later and it's worth driving to Sydney for.

Great tree Tony. Wish I'd been able to make the ( much shorter) trip.

How do you approach a tree with history & personal meaning, with even more time & effort to make it great. I have been waiting to see what you did with this and I am not disappointed, its got a great future ahead of it

Look forward to watching this one progress very quickly now your going to give it the attention it needs One question, the stub at the top, will it be removed eventually or kept as a jin?

Matt

Oh didnt you have some FUN That has come up a treat and exactly what the tree needed. I look forward to its progress. It is nice to see lots of Pines coming up for scrutiny for the future of Bonsai in Oz.

Thanks Guys

MattA, the top stumps and the bottom ones will be shortened and jinned with some shari created to blend them together. This will have to wait a while as they are all being used as anchors for the six guy wires that are holding the branches in place.

It certainly is good to see all the JBP's being used so well now Bodhi. It has long been my favourite species, but even I don't have so many any more.

Just as a note, the huge space between the right side branches will be filled with a secondary from the second branch that is there, just not long enough. As was normal over the weekend, Marc did do a drawing of the future, but I have not photographed it yet. Busy with our Society Exhibition this weekend but will show it soon.

Tony

Thanks Tony!
Lovely pine
Did Mark provide you with a future pic?...(just interested to see more of his excellent art work).
The best teachers are always hungry to learn
Cheers, Dario.

Well it has been around 8 months since this tree was overhauled and it is doing well. The growth has been good and strong since August. So strong that alot of the wire was cutting into the tree and it is time to remove most of it. It has shown zero ill affects from all the work that was performed on it.

It is a little overdue for a prune so I could not give it a full autumn prune, but I still needed to clean it out as there were many clustered shoots on most of the branches. We have a rather long autumn here in Brissy so I know the tree will have plenty of time for the remaing shoots to grow and gather strength before our short dormancy, so we can get away with 'better late than never'. The apex was a little weaker than the rest so not much was done there. Most of the autumn candle has already opened or opening, so I also removed a lot of the old needles to open up for the sun. The growth that will generate from this prune will also help heal up the wire scars as it fattens for winter. I will need to keep the food up to maintain it.

It will be repot time in spring and will be time to plant it at the new angle. Hopefully I will have a nice pot to put it in, although it will not be the final one then. The pruning done now will generate buds that will hold smaller needles and develop new candles for spring growth.

thats fantastic stuff. looks nice and healthy. congratulations, she's a beauty!

superb tree Tony.

Thanks for your comments Brian and Tim.

I forgot to post Marc's drawing of this tree so here it is.

He missed the mark a little (pun intended) on this tree as he drew it with a fairly straight trunk where the tree shows a bit more movement. More of an image the tree will impart than the actual tree. I love it and it is the style the tree will have when completed. Looking forward to the future.

Hi Tony, thanks for including the pic...well worth framing it for sure.
At what stage will you work on the two jins and do you plan on carving all the areas indicated in Marcs' pic?
Cheers, Dario.

Dario wrote:Hi Tony, thanks for including the pic...well worth framing it for sure.
At what stage will you work on the two jins and do you plan on carving all the areas indicated in Marcs' pic?
Cheers, Dario.

G'day Dario

I may do some work on the jins through winter as they have been cut for quite a few years, but I willmost likely leave the top jin till late spring to give it a year since pruning. I will be working these 2 areas that are indicated in Marc's drawing with the intention of some shari to link the 2 areas together. Probably not physically but visually connecting them but creating flow between the 2 areas.

Tony

Thanks Tony, I look forward to see the jin and shari work.
Cheers, Dario.