Pinus Elliottii Hem#2 - First wiring

Spring is here, the slash pine are pulling new candles and this little guy, although being 2 weeks late compared to the other slash pines I have, finally decided to pull new growth all over the place.

This pine was originally from a friend's collection and I got custody of it so to speak.

I've left it alone so far and have been looking at a way to approach it.

The original owner was going for a windswept style, but got stuck on the two opposing

branches which made the design he had in mind non-feasible.

I was stuck in this line of thinking initially ( ie forcing a windswept style into it ) but managed to get

out of that line of thinking and saw some possibility with an informal upright style. 

So that's the first styling towards creating that informal upright style.

The tree still needs lots of free growth and needs to be repotted in a bigger container, but 

for now I'm going to let it grow freely for say 2~4 growth cycles (roughtly 1~2 years) before repotting it.

Slash pine (pinus elliottii) before styling

That opposite branch is one of the main issues. I can't remove it right now
but its not in the best location either.

Wired the section I wanted to reposition

Et voila! Already much better :)

Top view

There was lots of leggy growth with bud located
on the extreme ends of the branches. Not really ideal for creating ramification.

I decided twist and compact the branches to bring
them closer to the main trunk. 

Top view after the branches have been wired too.

I was left with this lil problem guy.

Same store as for the apical branches :
long leggy growth, no bud closer to the trunk

I decided to go for the same technique as above, give the illlusion
that the branch is shorter and closer to the trunk by twisting the
branches and bringing compacting them closer to the trunk

I decided not to wire all the branches on this one. I'm still not sure
if I'm going to keep it of now in the long term so I wired only the major branches
with some potential to be retained later on.

---

Overall I'm satisfied with the end product at this time.
There are lots of bad and unwanted structures that I should have removed, but I'm leaving this for next year.
There are several leggy growth at the base of the trunk that won't be used later one, but I'd like to use them as sacrificial branches to give more girth to the base.

Slash pine (pinus elliottii) before styling

Slash pine (pinus elliottii) after styling

Before / After Bonsai Progression Showcase

A quick series of before and after shots of several trees in training, not yet full bonsai, but on its way to be bonsai.
All are still works in progress, some still have 1~3 years ahead and others a good 10 years.

Pinus Elliottii #001
From nursery

Late 2009

Mid 2012

Ligustrum #002
Collected

Mid 2010

Early 2013

Ligustrum #003
Collected

Mid 2010

Early 2013

Rosemary #002
From cutting

Mid 2010

Early 2013

Ligustrum #010
From seed [ 2009 ]

Late 2011

Early 2013

Ligustrum #011
This was initially a piece of salvaged root

Mid 2012

Early 2013

Slash pine bonsai : 4 Year Progression

Bonsai Mauritius - Slash pine bonsai : 4 Year Progression

This is a 4 years progression of my pine "bonsai".
It's a Slash Pine [ Pinus Elliottii ], acquired as a sapling back in 2009.

Most pictures of bonsai that stuck in my mind are bonsai of evergreen trees - Pines or Junipers.
After four years "playing" with this pine I am just starting to grasp the basic's basics of pines.
If I had to place a tree in terms of difficulty, pines would be at the top of the list.
It is definitely non a tree variety for a beginner and its needs a methodical approach to get something remotely resembling a bonsai.

Furthermore different varieties of bonsai have different number of needles, and depending on the number of needles your bonsai have [ 2 needles, 3 needles, 5 needles, etc ] you have different approaches to reducing those needles to acceptable length.

Slash pine is not a pine variety traditionally used in creating bonsai.

The most common pine varieties used for creating bonsai are Black pine, White pine, Mugo pine.
I have not been able to find those varieties in nurseries in Mauritius and so I've tried to reproduce Black Pine [ 2 needles ] needle reducing techniques on my Slash Pine [ 2-3 needles ]

One of the main difficulty with the Slash Pine is that it has very long needles.
I did managed to get some reduction to at least 50% [ picture at the end of the article ].
Typical slash pine needle length = 20cms
My current slash pine needle length = 10cm


So here it is :

Oct 2009 - Slash Pine Sapling.

July 2010

Oct 2010 - The tree is growing several candles.

April 2011

Oct 2011 - The picture is too small to see clearly,
but there are several candles on this one. Candles is
the equivalent of new shoots that you see in deciduous
trees.

June 2012

June 2012

June 2012 - Close up of the ramifications

June 2012 - Needle reduction
Top needle is from another Slash Pine [ untrained ]
Bottom needle is from this Slash Pine

Some pine bonsai reference:
Bonsai4me - Info on Pinus Species