Pine tree dilemma
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This Japanese white pine tree was planted on an angle on purpose. The guy who designed the garden is particularly pleased with it.
The idea is for it to grow in to this over some period of time:
Which is pretty cool, and he’s offered to prune it every year to get the look. Cost unspecified, but what price art?
Reviews are mixed, however. Traditional Midwest gardener friends wax apoplectic; predicting fire, pestilence and a zombie apocalypse. My gardener friend likes it -a lot. My contractor has offered to straighten it up if I want but he really doesn’t want to.
Your thoughts?
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Cool!!
@Steve-Miller said in Pine tree dilemma:
Reviews are mixed, however. Traditional Midwest gardener friends wax apoplectic; predicting fire, pestilence and a zombie apocalypse. My gardener friend likes it -a lot. My contractor has offered to straighten it up if I want but he really doesn’t want to.
@Steve-Miller said in Pine tree dilemma:
Your thoughts?
I think it won't grow into an interesting shape like that without coaxing (i.e., something more than just pruning) to encourage it to stay/grow into that shape.
Maybe I'm wrong. I mean, let's assume I'm wrong. After all, I'm a linguist, not a gardener!
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I think you should leave it. It will be fine. It will start to grow upright again. It will look weird for awhile before it does, but the pruning will help. I say do what the landscape guy is suggesting.
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It will start to grow upright again. It will look weird for awhile before it does
Yup.
I'm in the leave it as is camp, and I'm a Midwesterner. Of course I'm used to seeing evergreens with twisty trunks because the Eastern white cedars in Door County do all kinds of interesting things.
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I’m thinking I’ll tether some ropes to it next year to get it to grow upright. One good Ohio winter should get it to straighten up.
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@Steve-Miller said in Pine tree dilemma:
I’ll tether some ropes to it next year to get it to grow upright.
You mean, get it to grow upright with a bend in it, right?
Yes, I think that kind of guidance is what people do in Japan, although I'll ask Mr Sk when I get home.
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@ShiroKuro Please do!
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Yep, Mr SK said gardeners in Japan do all kinds of things, including attaching ropes to a trunk or branch, hanging a rock from a trunk etc.
He said his grandfather used to do bonsai and also full sized trees in their garden.
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Definitely get advice from the landscaper about the ropes. You really have to know what you're doing, or you can damage the tree.
It will want to grow towards the sun, so it will turn up on its own but it will take a bit longer than if you train it. But isn't part of a Japanese garden having things that aren't "perfect"?
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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@wtg said in Pine tree dilemma:
You really have to know what you're doing, or you can damage the tree.
Yep, that's what Mr SK said.
@Steve-Miller he found these two blog pages and said you might take a look, even though they're in Japanese you can check out the photos. He said one of the blogs describes breaking a branch from too aggressive shaping.
http://blog.ooyagaku.com/?eid=1032994
https://koeisika.ti-da.net/e9963588.html -
@ShiroKuro Those links are excellent. This is what I’d like to learn.
Thanks!
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Oh great! I’m glad they helped!
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Looks like a white pine trying to do a black pine's job. I vote for leaving it and let the guy
put the twists and bends in. That will show 'em. -
Bonsai are supposed to be small. That's just a giant bonsai. I think it will grow upright by itself, but I sure as heck wouldn't pay an arborist to prune it every year for shaping. Interesting for him, expensive for you.
“I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer”
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I like to take a class or something and learn to do it my self. Maybe YiuRube vids?
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I think I'd start small. That's a pretty expensive conifer to cut your teeth on.
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@Mik said in Pine tree dilemma:
Bonsai are supposed to be small. That's just a giant bonsai.
Yes bonsai are supposed to be small — bon means tray, sai means cultivate, so bonsai is cultivating a little tree in a tray.
That being said, Japanese gardens often have shaped pine trees, they’re very popular.
I think that’s what Steve is going for. Hence his willing ness to pay someone to expertly prune it for him. Which makes lot of sense to me.
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@ShiroKuro At least the first time. Once it get a basic shape I can probably maintain it myself. The trick seems to be to proceed slowly and cautiously with a vision as to the desired final form. They grow very slowly and there is plenty of time.
I’ll let it overwinter and address it in the Spring.
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@Steve-Miller said in Pine tree dilemma:
They grow very slowly and there is plenty of time.
Good point!
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Do you know which cultivar the pine is?
