A Japanese black pine after some serious trimming. If you look at the photo just below, you might notice that there has also been some serious needle reduction. The tree and the photos in this post belong to Boon Manakitivipart (aka Bonsai Boon).
Yesterday we featured Boon, our famous bonsai teacher to the teachers, so why not just keep going? We’re on vacation, so both yesterday’s and today’s (June 2014) are from our archives.
The first two photos shown here provide a simple before and after on a Japanese black pine. As you can see it’s a remarkable tree. I was especially taken with the deeply striated bark and the way it flows into the nebari.
Another thing that struck me about this tree is just how far American bonsai has come. It wasn’t that long ago when a Black pine of this caliber could only be Japanese.
Continued below…
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Just before trimming and cleaning up.
If you want to see the entire progression you can visit Boon on facebook (here and here).
This one is labeled August 2001, before. We'll assume it's right after Boon got the tree from Lone Pine Gardens (you'll have to ask Boon for the details).
Shaping up. This one is labeled January 2005. At the risk of stating the obvious, you might notice the two sacrifice branches. They are there to strengthen the apex by drawing energy up.
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May 2013. Almost there. It has been over eight years and one of the sacrifice branches is still there. I suspect it has done its job and is about to be removed.
Back to the future. Boon labeled this August 2015. But upon cross examination he admitted that he was rushing the future.
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