Japanese Black Pine #42

[MatsuBonsai]

This one was nicknamed #42 on another forum, for no particular reason.

The tree is about 12 years old. I picked it up at a workshop (first picture before, second after) and have been working on it for about 3 years. Third picture is of the tree in March of 2008 before wiring, and the fourth in April 2008 after wiring and needle pulling. If you look closely you can see where 2 of the major cuts were made in 2006, they've just about healed.

[MatsuBonsai]

Here's the tree as it looked July 2009. It was repotted earlier in the year with the new front. Most of the nasty root was removed and a lot of other root work performed. The surface roots should be in pretty good shape after the next repotting.

Much of the wire was removed earlier in the year as it was beginning to cut in.

The tree was decandled using the 10 day technique starting in mid June and finished up at the beginning of July.

[MatsuBonsai]

I took this (and a few others) up to the Cincinnati Advanced Bonsai Study Group with Ted Matson in September 2010. Ted was very complimentary and suggested that I should show this one at the National show in the next few years.

[MatsuBonsai]

Took it up to Cincinnati again in November 2010. Ted Matson gave a tree critique of the trees from the group for the general meeting. I decided to clean this one up, moss the soil, and clean the pot. Took a quick shot to see how it looked, just for fun.

[MatsuBonsai]

It was decandled and needle plucked by one of my long time study group participants a few weeks ago. I think he did a pretty good job. What do you think?

[cglanton]

That's a beautiful JBP MatsuBonsai! Amazing progress....Congrats! And keep the updates coming.

[dbrock]

That is a great tree. It is a great start and over the years, it will be increadible.