white pine bonsai Ideas

gbhunter77 · Sun Sep 11, 2011 3:50 am

I did an image search for white pine bonsai but I would say most of the images were not of the plant I have. I bought a fair size white pine...teddy bear plant. It has large sft pom pom like needles. Any one ever work on these and have some images perhaps? Is there a way to make the needles shorter but still remain soft?

tomc · Sun Sep 11, 2011 8:31 am

I let all my white pines go to landscape. I couldn't overcome the 'lions tail' pom-pom growth patern.

I'm not equal to this species need.

Gnome · Sun Sep 11, 2011 12:45 pm

gbhunter77,

White Pine bonsai that you are seeing are probably Japanese White Pine or P. parviflora, whereas our Eastern White Pine is P. strobus. I don't believe that many growers consider P. strobus a good bonsai candidate.

Norm

gbhunter77 · Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:56 pm

Now I learn thid. Well looks like my pin will be hitting the fite pit. As for the other pine I cant find it for less tgat 200$. I did look at amogo pine but it looked just like the unusable one only shorter needls

gbhunter77 · Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:23 am

Is it bossible to get the pine you mentined for a normal amount of money. I don't wnt to learn on a 300$ tree. I therw the other pine away, I did not know it was worthles, for nodai. What a waste o 60$.

Gnome · Tue Sep 13, 2011 8:14 am

gbhunter77,

Well, what's done is done, but your White Pine could have become a landscape tree, for your home or a neighbors. At worst it was also practice for keeping trees alive in containers, a large part of bonsai. Pines require a somewhat specialized strategy to make bonsai from, a strategy that may not be suited to beginners. Might we suggest a different, perhaps deciduous, species?

Don't give up, I guarantee that everyone here has numerous mistakes and dead trees behind them. A famous bonsai artist is reputed as having said that "The tuition one pays to learn bonsai is many dead trees"

Norm

Gnome · Tue Sep 13, 2011 1:29 pm

gbhunter77 wrote:Now I learn thid. Well looks like my pin will be hitting the fite pit. As for the other pine I cant find it for less tgat 200$. I did look at amogo pine but it looked just like the unusable one only shorter needls

Mugo is a species that is used for bonsai, the shorter needles is one of the things that makes it superior to Eastern White Pine. But, as I mentioned earlier, a deciduous species might be a better choice for a beginner.

If you are set on an evergreen species Junipers are easier to work with than Pines.

Norm

TomM · Tue Sep 13, 2011 6:14 pm

"a normal amount of money" means different things to different people.

Pines are not good for "beginners bonsai"

With that said please look at the picture here - https://www.mvbonsai.com/
This is nursery stock dwarf white pine, priced at $99. Roughly 30 inches high, maybe 12-15 years old. Nice for bonsai material, not superior, but very nice. Sorry I don't have a better picture to offer. Point is - this stuff is available.

On a different note (off topic) this past Saturday our club visited two local nurseries to conduct a 'BONSAI SEARCH - and rescue - PARTY'. We spread out and scoured the grounds to find likely candidates for future bonsai. It was a blast. Came home with some really cool stuff.

As you can see in the link above one of the local nurseries donated to the club a nice tree to be raffled, or maybe auctioned, maybe used in a demonstration, and then raffled They also gave all our members very deep discounts - like 20%-80% off everything we bought! This is what they do. Why do business with the 'big box' places when you can support local people? They suffer with the corporate competition and show their appreciation when you visit them. But that's a different topic.

Gnome · Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:00 pm

Tom,

I was not aware that there was a dwarf cultivar of Eastern White Pine.

https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/shrubs/pinus_strobus-nana.html

Do you know how they fare as prospective bonsai material?

Norm

TomM · Wed Sep 14, 2011 5:33 am

Norm,
I don't know YET. No personal experience with it. But now, with this new tree for the club to use, I will learn more about it. We intend to work with it - whomever becomes the future owner - as a group project.
Dwarf cultivars are not always the best materials. But this little beauty really shines. Terrific tufts of soft short needles. Great color. However the bark has a very smooth immature texture. We would prefer rougher more aged appearance. But still - we are thrilled to have it.

gbhunter77 · Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:18 pm

I know this will say its weird. I have been told I have a gifr for plants. I bought a very difficul plant to care for. I did not know that at a time. But that's the plant doing the best out of all the plans I have. even the nursery cannot get results like that. They keep asking me questions how I did it. I don't know. I just did it. So I'm all sorts of weird.

TomM · Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:42 pm

OK - so I'll say it again. You should be working at that nursery. Really. It's what you love to do. And when we discover our passion at an early age we are so much farther ahead than the rest of the field. Most of us don't discover our passion (bonsai or whatever) until we're old, and with far less time ahead of us to develop good trees. They take years to do.

No that is not weird. That's good!

Go for it.