Lonely pine

[Joe.sab]

Hi all.
The Lone pine ! Any one heard of this tree? Or its red or white pine and they call it like this because of story
You can read the story and how they called it on one of the photos, I didn’t do any research’s about it, and it has seeds on it can i seedling it and what is the process to seeds and plant the pines! Any information please share,
By the way this tree I found in my daughter school. So i go pick her up and take some seeds
Cheers.

[shibui]

There was some debate about whether this is actually Pinus halapensis or P. brutia. I'm not sure whether anyone has definitively identified it or not yet. The RSL grew a lot of these and gave one tree to each school in Australia so there are lots of them around. You can also find Pinus halapensis on farms in the drier parts of Australia where they grow well.

You can certainly gather some seed and grow seedlings.
Pine cones open up late summer and drop the seeds. If it gets wet the cones close up again and look perfect but there are few seeds inside so try to get cones early for best seed. Put the cones in a warm place for a few days and they should slowly open and the seeds will come out.
I usually sow the seed straight away. Sometimes they will germinate quickly and you will have little seedlings through winter - don't worry they are tough enough to keep growing even if it gets cold. Some pine seeds do not grow until the end of winter because they need to go through cold before starting. That's why you should sow seed before winter. Just keep them damp and outside so they can experience cold then they start to grow in spring. Plant pine seeds in any good potting mix. Cover the seeds with about 1cm of potting mix and just wait.

You can see some more information about growing pine seedlings in this thread viewtopic.php?f=9&t=24852&hilit=+pine+seedling and on Shibui Bonsai site https://shibuibonsai.com.au/?p=366

[Joe.sab]

Thanks shibui for this valuable information, I liked the tree because it doesn’t have hard needles like black pine you feel it more like red pine soft needles and greener than the red pine ; hopefully they are tough like black pine, I did checked your website very valuable information you got there , keep it up my friend
Cheers

[shibui]

P. halapensis has different juvenile leaves. They are bluish colour and single needles but still quite soft. When you prune the needles often stay as juvenile instead of the adult green needles.
When I tried it as bonsai I had trouble keeping the branches under control - they just get longer and longer. Maybe now I know good pine pruning maybe I could do better?

From seed it is not quick. Be prepared to wait for 10 years or more to get a good bonsai pine.

[dansai]

I collected some cones from a tree in Bermugui in early November when cones weren’t fully ripe. They opened in a paper bag and I sowed about 10 seeds and got 8 up in about a week. There was a plague saying the seeds came from the lone pine. With a bit of research I found a similar story to the one you got a photo of. It is thought the cones were collected from the trenches and not from the actual tree left standing, and possibly the 2 officers actually sent cones from 2 different species. An interesting story and although mine are, and yours soon will be, just seedlings, they already have a story.

[DocPep]

I looked into to this as well. Thought it would be pretty cool to have a tree with such a great story and part of our history. Any way found that the War Memorial sell various size seedlings starting at $20 if anyone is interested.

[Joe.sab]

Absolutely, interesting,I love to seedlings the bonsai and wait for it to grow year after year watching it in all it’s levels in that way you having a history with it, and if not get it this year will get it the year after always we learn something new, that’s why we are here, you’re the expert and we’re here to learn from you, appreciate every one share his information with us.
Have a good weekend guys.