AusBonsai

Howdy,

I feel very fortunate to have happened upon two pines from a friend who has lost interest in pines (TimS). While he loves looking at great pine bonsai and admires great bonsai he has no interest in tending them as part of his collection. Indeed, he has lost so much interest in tending pines, that he now has a total of zero in his collection. Zip. Nudda. None. Tim's focus is now on deciduous and flowering varieties on Bonsai.

Now - I am no pine expert. I like them but I am scared of them. Petrified. They seem easy to kill. A few members of YVBS and Warragul and so many more folk have wonderful specimens. Ryceman3 got me interested through with his seedling project - so I purchased a bunch of his seedlings. And more recently, a wonderful presentation by Scott Martin of Bonsai Matsu at the Yarra Valley Bonsai Society inspired me.

As fate would have it - a range of events occurred - let's call it serendipity and I came into two pines from Tim. I am truly thankful to Tim. I'll do a seperate post about each.

I have called this Black Pine (Yatsubusa) "The 'Eff'd Pine". In short, the title reflects the history! That was the comment from the said prior owner when he cut the top off it and said well... "I eff'd it". Use you imagination if you're not sure what this means. In short, it was destined for the bin.

A photo arrived on my phone to see if I was interested. Here's the original photos.

When I got it home I thought maybe we can make a new top, maybe we can semi-cascade. Ok - so maybe there's options but I have no clue and no idea if now is the right time to play with the tree. Some may argue but I know my limitations and I didn't want to further f'up the Effed' tree!

With Scott Martin (Bonsai Matsu) https://www.bonsaimatsu.com at front of mind because of his recent demo at YVBS, I gave him a call and asked if I could call on his expertise. He's a busy bloke but after seeing a photo, the short answer was, yes.

Scott was brilliant. He is such a humble, kind and knowledgeable guy. He was generous with his time and over a coffee we discussed a range of options. A coffee turned into a workshop and away we went.

Here's where we landed. A few angles.
As a tree that was once destined for a sad end at the bottom of a bin, I am so happy with this as the start of a new life.

A couple of note is in passing.

My learning here is that one man's trash is another man's treasure. We all have different wants and ideas. I was lucky that Tim had fallen out of love with the species, was not spending much time on them and the timing was right. Further, difficult stock requires expertise; expertise that I do not yet have. I am so thankful that Scott was able to make time to see me and I look forward to future classes with Scott.

Who nows where "The Eff'ed Tree" goes from here but as someone new to pines, I feel fortunate to have this little tree and hopefully, by continuing to draw on the knowledge of experts - I won't kill it. Perhaps I can even make it into something quite lovely over time.

Be assured, Tim and I have been chatting about this tree for the past few weeks, I was a little uncomfortable in posting this but Tim was more than happy as it does show what can be done with difficult stock.

I am sure others may have taken the tree in a different direction or even not like the tree as it is ... for me, I love it and am thankful to Tim and to Scott too.

Cheers,

Mark

PS - My next post about my other pine will be shorter. I know, I ramble!

Hi Mark,
I like the direction you have chosen for the tree. Nice lines for a shohin. I agree that having another set of eyes certainly helps some time. Looking forward to see where you take this.

I'm really glad this tree and the other pine have found a great new home, this one especially now has a future beyond sitting in the corner being ignored by me while i happily fettle my beloved deciduous trees.

As you say, this tree was absolutely destined for the bin, but each time i half made up my mind to chuck it away, something stayed my hand. When i dropped by and saw it in it's new state i almost didn't recognize it, such was the excellence of the transformation. It all made sense why i had never managed to throw it away. A great little tree was in there that needed to be coaxed out and enjoyed by someone.

I'm glad you went ahead and posted the transformation, because there might be other people who have trees sitting around who can get a bit of inspiration to look at them in a new way and do something with them. My pine-less benches now hold only trees that i love, and that is such a great feeling; to go with the satisfaction of knowing that the pines are in good hands. Don't feel daunted by them, it's just a different approach to growing them!

I'm excited to see this little guy develop under your care

Yep ... that works. Massive potential in that as a shohin semi cascade, I can see how the development will come, you'll be amazed at how good that is going to look in just a couple of years. I like it a lot.

Cheers Terry, Tim and Ryan. Appreciated.

Actually Ryan, your words were echoed by Scott after the styling - I noted that this would take a while to progress and Scott responded along the lines of: "Not as long as you might think". Yep, I am excited by the potential. Oh you might wonder why this and my other Black Pine have no little men in the pot? In truth, these trees will stand on their own in due course, the bark and movement would mean the distraction of the little fellas won't be needed.

For the record, I am just adding a shot from above the tree. I'll be able to compare future ramification in due course. Clearly the jins are just roughed in at this stage too.
Once again Tim, thanks for the opportunity to develop this tree.

Hi Mark .Great result ,nice movement and a lovely line to work with. Great future. Cheers John.

Looking awesome.....

Congratulations, very interesting transformation.

Thanks John, Alaric and Watto - your feedback feedback is appreciated and it will be interesting to see progress from here. As previously noted - this initial styling could only have been done with a healthy tree to start (thanks Tim) and the confidence you get from sitting next to an experienced artist (thanks Scott). I look forward to continuing to learn. With stock like this, hopefully my skills can move forward accordingly.

(Also, just noted my spelling error in the title - oops, bummer. Yatsubusa .... too late to edit.)

MJL wrote: ↑August 19th, 2019, 7:47 am Thanks John, Alaric and Watto - your feedback feedback is appreciated and it will be interesting to see progress from here. As previously noted - this initial styling could only have been done with a healthy tree to start (thanks Tim) and the confidence you get from sitting next to an experienced artist (thanks Scott). I look forward to continuing to learn. With stock like this, hopefully my skills can move forward accordingly.

(Also, just noted my spelling error in the title - oops, bummer. Yatsubusa .... too late to edit.)

Looking forward to watching the transformation journey

Outstanding result, brave decisions have transformed an ordinary tree. I am sure you will be proud of it in the future.

Thank you Gerard - much appreciated.

I am just updated this thread after this tree's first decandling (and my first decandling) under some experienced guidance. These photos contain some rough notes to explain my thinking... they will service as a record (and help my memory) as the tree progresses. In the photo below - that branch will grow to become the top and one candle has purposely been left to pull growth down through the cascade. and below shows how the same branch had a sub-branch that will fill a space at the back of the cascade below shows that the branch on the opposite side of the cascade may go and the other branch will provides depth to the finished tree. Well... I hope. Much work and patience ahead.

There’s a lot of... “man, my tree looks like crap” after you decandle for the first time... but it’s important you like what you’ve done because when it buds out ... and provided you maintain water (and basically only water) for the next couple of months, you are going to see a new tree come autumn. On the subject of water though, be a tiny bit vigilant... with a lot of green removed (as you should have) the need for water diminishes a bit given the rate of transpiration decreases. Less water required but monitor it. This is probably something I remember not taking into account when I first decandled. Lovely job.

Noted Ryan. Thanks for the response.
Yep, water only - fertiliser was immediately stopped after decandling. I’ll keep an eye on volume but it is in a very coarse mix, which should help.