A Japanese black pine after some serious trimming and cleaning up. If you look at the photo just below, you might notice that there has been some serious needle reduction too. The tree and the photos in this post belong to Boon Manakitivipart (aka Bonsai Boon).
The first two photos shown here provide a simple one day (or thereabouts) before and after on a Japanese black pine. As you can see it’s a remarkable tree. I was especially taken with the perfectly striated bark and the way it seamlessly flows into the nebari.
Another thing that struck me about this tree was how it represents just how far American bonsai has come. It wasn’t that long ago when a Black pine of this caliber could only be Japanese. But this one is home grown. At least I think it was (I guess it’s possible that it was originally imported, but judging by the photos, it was certainly developed and refined here).
If you want to see the entire progression you can visit Boon on facebook (here and here).
Just before the serious trimming and cleaning up.
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.
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.
If you’d like to know a lot more about Pines, this is the book for you. This is a particularly good time too as all of our books are 25% off our already discounted prices. This sale ends tonight (Friday, June 27, at 11:59 pm EDT).