From Semi to Full Cascade with a Cork Bark Japanese Black Pine

[fredtruck]

I bought a cork bark Japanese black pine cultivar in very late 2008. The tree was 9 or 10 years old. This tree was not my first cork bark pine but all the same I knew very little about the Ondae cultivar other than the fact that it was rare, new, tended to grow cascade or falling branches, and corked up very quickly. The tree I bought was a two line semi-cascade.

I quickly potted up the Ondae and mostly watched it grow through 2009. Here’s a picture from 2009.

 

[fredtruck]

Because Japanese black pines are so apically dominant, I had to make changes in the apex, which was composed of multiple shoots. The tree now entered its Ugly Phase. This picture is from July, 2011.

 

[fredtruck]

The Ondae did not handle shoot reduction well. Corking continued at a pleasing pace, but the foliage just seemed to go wild. There was no way I could make the tree look attractive as a two line semi-cascade. Finally, after trying a whole bunch of different ideas, I just lopped off the top line in September of 2012.

 

[fredtruck]

The tree immediately looked a lot better. I realized that the Ondae might look even better if I managed somehow to lower the foliage so it was lower than the cascading part of the trunk. I tried to bend the trunk.

 

[fredtruck]

Cork bark Japanese black pines are famous for their stiffness, once the cork is set. My Ondae was no exception. I tried to bend the trunk again in March of 2013, and later in the year, attempting to follow the example of Bill Valavanis, I sawed into the cascade as far as I dared, put a small rock in the cut, and covered it with cut paste. I failed to move the cascade more than .125” because there was so much cork, and so little actual live tree to cut into. As my manipulations became more desperate, I seriously thought about killing the tree. Fortunately, I came to my senses.

 

[fredtruck]

I changed the planting angle, and thus the Ondae transitioned from semi to full cascade. The Ondae and I still have a lot of work to do, primarily in the area of needle reduction. This virtual will give you an idea where we are going.

 

[Cadillactaste]

I like where your taking it...I also like what seems to be your greenhouse. Seems to be a nice set up as well...any photos of your set up so we can admire it?

 

[fredtruck]

I do have photos. I get asked about my garage all the time, so I'm going to start a separate thread devoted just to it.

 

[Cadillactaste]

I do have photos. I get asked about my garage all the time, so I'm going to start a separate thread devoted just to it.

That's...your...garage! WOW! I am intrigued now. Looking forward to seeing that thread.

 

[fredtruck]

Before we go much further with discussion of my tree, I have to say I didn't do the work on this bonsai without suggestions and advice from Brian Van Fleet, Jerry Meislik, and Mat Ouwinga. I appreciate their guidance.

 

[fredtruck]

It's now a little over a year later. Corking is a little more developed, and somehow, the whole structure supporting the foliage has twisted a bit. More work needs to be done on the canopy. But the tree is progressing.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Agree I do with more work. Trunk to foliage ok. All/most branches go up. Nothing to side or downward so looks like single pad or foliage like single branch. Hard to change with cork bark tree.

 

[fredtruck]

Hard to change with cork bark tree.

Absolutely. The branch structure is more like a waterfall starting with one river breaking down into several streams. I removed a couple of streams to simplify things. The cascading portion used to be maybe a third again as large. I'll try to get a picture soon.

 

[JudyB]

Fred, this is looking strong. I don't know what it is about what you did specifically, but the image is far more striking now to me.

 

[fredtruck]

>>All/most branches go up. Nothing to side or downward so looks like single pad or foliage like single branch.--Potawatomi13

I bought this tree when it was 8 or 9 years old. A lot of the cork was already there, so adjusting branch structure was limited to pruning and wiring. I've done some wiring, but most adjustment was done by pruning. Here is the structure as it is now:



This is not classic cascade branch structure. It's definitely not a single branch structure either, though from the side it might be construed as such.

The back of the tree is to the right in the picture. I removed one small branch. I removed a much larger branch on the left. When I started working on this tree, I relied a lot on the advice of more experienced enthusiasts. I removed a lot of branches that came in 3s that would have resulted in lumps and bumps.

Since with a cascade bonsai, the viewer is usually looking at the tree in profile, I didn't think all the foliage going up would be a problem, because whatever I did to the tree, it would look like a large single pad of foliage. Another reason it didn't bother me was that the point of this tree is not the foliage, but the cork. Foliage going up meant more visible cork.

You'll notice there are some shorter needles and then some pretty long ones. The long needles resulted from shoots after the tree was decandled, and no new buds appeared until very late. Next summer, the needles will be shorter.

Judy said >>Fred, this is looking strong. I don't know what it is about what you did specifically, but the image is far more striking now to me.

I think it is much clearer now where I am going with the tree. Until I made the planting angle change, and the cascading branch dropped straight down, it wasn't clear what I was about.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Understood. After all is your tree. Very good from top angle.

 

[mcpesq817]

Hey Fred, looking really great. Completely understand about the limited ability to bend corked up branches. Is there a way to graft foliage to these kinds of trees? The tree is great right now, but I wonder if adding two or three grafts with a different orientation could be pretty cool to help break up the foliage mass into more discreet pads.

Just a thought, great tree! I have one of Brent's big mi nishiki corkers, and I'm strongly leaning towards moving it to a cascade style similar to what you've done with yours. After seeing your pictures, I'm more convinced to go that direction - the cascade style is a great way to show off the corky bark!

 

[fredtruck]

Thinned foliage coming into its own reveals more cork.

 

[JudyB]

I'll bet you're feeling much better about this one now. Good for you for keeping pushing at it. Nice solution.

 

[Don Blackmond]

Did you get it from Dave Dewire?