A “Meriggioli” Book for Pines?

[dbonsaiw]

Andrea Meriggioli’s maple book really helped advance my understanding of maples and deciduous bonsai development in general. Is there anything comparable for pines? When I started bonsai I picked up a few pines and have done almost nothing with them since (probably why those are the only ones still alive from that time). Basically, I see candles and say “hmmmm” then just water/fertilize.

I rather like this black pine and thought it’s time to learn what on earth to do with these non-deciduous creatures.

 

[cmu268]

Don't know if it's comparable, because I haven't seen Andrea Meriggioli's book, but "Growing Pines for Bonsai" by Julian Adams has been incredibly helpful for me and would highly recommend it. I ordered a copy last year and have already read through a couple times.

 

[ShimpakuBonsai]

For growing pines I can recommend the book Bonsai Today Masters' Series Pines.

 

[Gabler]

Don't know if it's comparable, because I haven't seen Andrea Meriggioli's book, but "Growing Pines for Bonsai" by Julian Adams has been incredibly helpful for me and would highly recommend it. I ordered a copy last year and have already read through a couple times.

I've been reading it myself. I appreciate the way he organizes the information by time of year.

 

[dbonsaiw]

I have a copy of the Bonsai Today book. Haven't looked at it in years as I remember being somewhat lost last go around. I will take a look again. I would call Meriggioli's book a must have - he does such a fantastic job at breaking down so many different aspects of development. It's really second to none.

 

[cmu268]

I have a copy of the Bonsai Today book. Haven't looked at it in years as I remember being somewhat lost last go around. I will take a look again. I would call Meriggioli's book a must have - he does such a fantastic job at breaking down so many different aspects of development. It's really second to none.

I'll have to check his book out. Andrea is the featured artist at New England Bonsai Garden's Spring Celebration this coming weekend. Looking forward to checking out his JM demonstration!

 

[Gabler]

I have a copy of the Bonsai Today book. Haven't looked at it in years as I remember being somewhat lost last go around. I will take a look again. I would call Meriggioli's book a must have - he does such a fantastic job at breaking down so many different aspects of development. It's really second to none.

You would say Meriggioli's book is worth the unusually steep price tag?

 

[Wood]

Undoubtedly, yes. The only thing I would quibble with are some of his styling choices. He likes to go for the stereotypically bonsai look, which he does quite well. There are times when you see him point every primary branch downward when styling up new stock, but the book is stuffed with enough spectacular trees that it doesn't really matter

 

[Gabler]

Undoubtedly, yes. The only thing I would quibble with are some of his styling choices. He likes to go for the stereotypically bonsai look, which he does quite well. There are times when you see him point every primary branch downward when styling up new stock, but the book is stuffed with enough spectacular trees that it doesn't really matter

When I first began reading books about bonsai, I found myself confused. The books were telling me to look to nature for inspiration, but they were showing me pictures of maple trees styled to look like pines. It would have helped if even one of those books had commented that traditional Japanese trees are highly stylized, and the Western trend is to grow more naturalistic trees. Instead, I was left confused for years.

 

[River's Edge]

You would say Meriggioli's book is worth the unusually steep price tag?

I would say the price tag reflects a top quality detailed reference book used for high level instructional purposes.
Short answer; yes absolutely!

 

[tangledtanuki]

Definitely love to know if there is a pine or juniper book close to what Meriggioli has produced. It is a must have for anyone who wants to develop maples

 

[River's Edge]

Andrea Meriggioli’s maple book really helped advance my understanding of maples and deciduous bonsai development in general. Is there anything comparable for pines? When I started bonsai I picked up a few pines and have done almost nothing with them since (probably why those are the only ones still alive from that time). Basically, I see candles and say “hmmmm” then just water/fertilize.

I rather like this black pine and thought it’s time to learn what on earth to do with these non-deciduous creatures.

I am not aware of a comparable book for pines. the closest possibility in my mind is the archives of posts by Jonas Dupuich on his Bonsai Tonight site. If he ever took the time to collate and publish that material it would make an incredible reference text on Pine Development.

 

[Wood]

When I first began reading books about bonsai, I found myself confused. The books were telling me to look to nature for inspiration, but they were showing me pictures of maple trees styled to look like pines. It would have helped if even one of those books had commented that traditional Japanese trees are highly stylized, and the Western trend is to grow more naturalistic trees. Instead, I was left confused for years.

I find it kind of funny that there's such a strong stereotype of Japanese-styled maples/deciduous trees with branches moving downward. It's undoubtedly a thing and I've seen pictures of them styled that way, but the vast majority of maples in Kokufu-ten albums aren't like that. I wonder how far back you have to go to see a significant number of maples or deciduous trees like that. I just flipped through the 66th album and there's only a handful of examples, and there's very few in the 73rd. It does seem to get more prevalent in shohin though

 

[Nybonsai12]

I am not aware of a comparable book for pines. the closest possibility in my mind is the archives of posts by Jonas Dupuich on his Bonsai Tonight site. If he ever took the time to collate and publish that material it would make an incredible reference text on Pine Development.

This thread captured a bunch of great posts from his site.

Bonsai Tonight Japanese Red & Black Pines Links

Bonsai Tonight is probably one of the best resources out there on the care and training of Japanese black and red pines. It is usually one of the first references listed when someone has questions about pines. I decided, as much for myself as...

www.bonsainut.com

 

[MaciekA]

I have a copy of the Bonsai Today book. Haven't looked at it in years as I remember being somewhat lost last go around. I will take a look again. I would call Meriggioli's book a must have - he does such a fantastic job at breaking down so many different aspects of development. It's really second to none.

I have the BT pines book. I don't think it gives a coherent overview of pines in a helpful non-confusing way. It feels cobbled together from other books/magazines and not really written with a singular mission of telling you how a pine works. I would argue that the book has almost nothing to say about building pines from scratch. Yeah, it tells you how to start a shohin trunk in the famous pine-from-seed chapter, but it actually stops right as things get very involved in the canopy. The chapter on building a cascade is an interesting case study but as a source for techniques, it's flawed and incomplete IMO.

So far I haven't seen anything written about pine techniques in English-language books that is in the same tier as this Japanese black pine manual (if you need a warning before clicking an imgur link, it's the picture of a cover of a japanese black pine book):

https://imgur.com/a/pu1jA0c

. There's a white pine, red pine, and shimpaku edition of this book. That said -- Personally, I've found the books to be a very very minor supplement to mentoring under other pine growers who know what they're doing and having mature pines to look at in person.

What the books don't really teach or convery properly (though the Japanese books at least have gobs and gobs of diagrams and photos about it) is how it all comes together in seasonal practice, how it all assembles in 3D, how you go from thinning to wiring to branch/shoot placement, etc. But you get that on your first day working with a pine nerd.

BTW @dbonsaiw , the tree in your picture is a white pine, not a black pine (maybe you misspoke), and if it were my tree, the remainder of this decade would be spent thinning out needles to favor budding areas (and making room for wire), then applying wire to branches & pulling those branches down, and perhaps pruning once in a blue moon, but not much initially -- I'd be spending quite a bit of time on fixing the nebari first. The BT pines book makes it sound like candle pinching would be a major part of this process, but I might not need to pinch this until well into the 2030s, given the near-term goals.

 

[penumbra]

Another for "Growing Pines for Bonsai" by Julian Adams. I am about halfway through it now and know more about pines in a very concise manor than I have ever known. Extremely helpful for me and I wish I had read it in the winter when I bought it from him at the Winter Silhouette Show. It is a no nonsense primer in a more or less calendar format. It is kind of like a Pines for Dummies and beyond.

 

[River's Edge]

Another for "Growing Pines for Bonsai" by Julian Adams. I am about halfway through it now and know more about pines in a very concise manor than I have ever known. Extremely helpful for me and I wish I had read it in the winter when I bought it from him at the Winter Silhouette Show. It is a no nonsense primer in a more or less calendar format. It is kind of like a Pines for Dummies and beyond.

Agreed, a great primer for basic comprehension and some very insightful guidelines. Key aspect focus on timing of techniques and why that timing.

 

[River's Edge]

I have the BT pines book. I don't think it gives a coherent overview of pines in a helpful non-confusing way. It feels cobbled together from other books/magazines and not really written with a singular mission of telling you how a pine works. I would argue that the book has almost nothing to say about building pines from scratch. Yeah, it tells you how to start a shohin trunk in the famous pine-from-seed chapter, but it actually stops right as things get very involved in the canopy. The chapter on building a cascade is an interesting case study but as a source for techniques, it's flawed and incomplete IMO.

So far I haven't seen anything written about pine techniques in English-language books that is in the same tier as this Japanese black pine manual (if you need a warning before clicking an imgur link, it's the picture of a cover of a japanese black pine book):

https://imgur.com/a/pu1jA0c

. There's a white pine, red pine, and shimpaku edition of this book. That said -- Personally, I've found the books to be a very very minor supplement to mentoring under other pine growers who know what they're doing and having mature pines to look at in person.

What the books don't really teach or convery properly (though the Japanese books at least have gobs and gobs of diagrams and photos about it) is how it all comes together in seasonal practice, how it all assembles in 3D, how you go from thinning to wiring to branch/shoot placement, etc. But you get that on your first day working with a pine nerd.

BTW @dbonsaiw , the tree in your picture is a white pine, not a black pine (maybe you misspoke), and if it were my tree, the remainder of this decade would be spent thinning out needles to favor budding areas (and making room for wire), then applying wire to branches & pulling those branches down, and perhaps pruning once in a blue moon, but not much initially -- I'd be spending quite a bit of time on fixing the nebari first. The BT pines book makes it sound like candle pinching would be a major part of this process, but I might not need to pinch this until well into the 2030s, given the near-term goals.

The corresponding book on JWP in the same series is very good and detailed as well. Wish I was more adept at the use of google translate/ I do find it a bit tedious and repetitive.

 

[badatusernames]

I have the BT pines book. I don't think it gives a coherent overview of pines in a helpful non-confusing way. It feels cobbled together from other books/magazines and not really written with a singular mission of telling you how a pine works. I would argue that the book has almost nothing to say about building pines from scratch. Yeah, it tells you how to start a shohin trunk in the famous pine-from-seed chapter, but it actually stops right as things get very involved in the canopy. The chapter on building a cascade is an interesting case study but as a source for techniques, it's flawed and incomplete IMO.

So far I haven't seen anything written about pine techniques in English-language books that is in the same tier as this Japanese black pine manual (if you need a warning before clicking an imgur link, it's the picture of a cover of a japanese black pine book):

https://imgur.com/a/pu1jA0c

. There's a white pine, red pine, and shimpaku edition of this book. That said -- Personally, I've found the books to be a very very minor supplement to mentoring under other pine growers who know what they're doing and having mature pines to look at in person.

What the books don't really teach or convery properly (though the Japanese books at least have gobs and gobs of diagrams and photos about it) is how it all comes together in seasonal practice, how it all assembles in 3D, how you go from thinning to wiring to branch/shoot placement, etc. But you get that on your first day working with a pine nerd.

BTW @dbonsaiw , the tree in your picture is a white pine, not a black pine (maybe you misspoke), and if it were my tree, the remainder of this decade would be spent thinning out needles to favor budding areas (and making room for wire), then applying wire to branches & pulling those branches down, and perhaps pruning once in a blue moon, but not much initially -- I'd be spending quite a bit of time on fixing the nebari first. The BT pines book makes it sound like candle pinching would be a major part of this process, but I might not need to pinch this until well into the 2030s, given the near-term goals.

I found a couple of this series through Bonsai Auctions - is there anywhere in the US that sells these?

 

[Gabler]

Apparently, he also has a YouTube channel.

https://m.youtube.com/@Hiryuen-bonsai-eng