How to Make a Lacebark Pine Bonsai? A Detailed Guide to the Latest Method

Lacebark pine bonsai is generally described with four words: old, green, strong, and unusual. The word “unusual” holds considerable weight in how lacebark pine bonsai is expressed; because it adapts to the natural environment while also being highly resistant, overcoming interference from unfavorable external factors, as time passes, the tree's appearance gradually grows old, its form naturally becomes beautiful, its spirit becomes complete, and it carries a grand, imposing air, like the virtue of a gentleman, with extraordinary bearing, dignified and elegant.

Characteristics of Lacebark Pine Bonsai

Lacebark pine bonsai is best created with an expression of grandeur and masculine beauty as the main approach. Because of its physiological characteristics, it can only be shaped by hanging and wiring its existing branches to bring out the natural posture of overlapping branch layers. At the same time, lacebark pine likes sunlight and tolerates drought, so it is best to use soil with good drainage and aeration along with a shallow purple clay pot.

Sourcing Material for Lacebark Pine Bonsai

1. Sowing: For lacebark pine, collect seeds in late August, remove the seed scales, and sow immediately after collection, or dry them in the shade and store them in sand, then sow in March of the following spring. Sow in drills with a row spacing of 15 cm, covering with soil to a depth 3 times the diameter of the seeds. After sowing, cover with rice straw, remove the straw promptly after seedlings emerge, and set up a shade frame. Spring-sown seedlings need careful management: water when dry, apply dilute cake fertilizer water once every 15 to 20 days, stop fertilizing in September, and for autumn sowing take care to protect against cold as winter sets in, with no fertilizing that year. After one year, sown seedlings are transplanted, and once grown into large seedlings they are used for bonsai shaping.

2. Cuttings: For lacebark pine, spring cuttings are taken in early to mid-March. Choose robust one-year-old branches, cut them into cuttings 8 to 12 cm long, remove the leaves from the lower half, and insert them about 1/2 deep. To promote rapid rooting, treat the lower cut end with a 500*10 PPM concentration of the growth hormone naphthalene acetic acid. After inserting, set up a shade frame and frequently spray water on the leaves, keeping the soil moist; rooting occurs in about 60 to 80 days. Autumn cuttings are taken in August to September, using semi-lignified young branches as cuttings, with the same method as spring cuttings; after winter arrives, cover with plastic film and straw curtains to protect against cold.

Shaping Lacebark Pine Bonsai

1. In nature, lacebark pine takes endlessly varied forms, mostly because different growing environments cause different changes in the posture of the trunk, so handling the trunk is the key to shaping lacebark pine bonsai. Although lacebark pine trunks in nature present a thousand postures, in summary there are only two basic forms: straight trunk and curved trunk. A curved trunk can be an “S”-shaped modified treatment, and can further divide into several bonsai forms, such as slanting trunk style, curved trunk style, cascade style, and so on.

2. Whether curved trunk or straight trunk, the trunk is required to taper gradually from bottom to top. If the taper changes quickly, a short and sturdy lacebark pine bonsai can be made; if the taper changes slowly, a “literati tree” bonsai can be made. Apart from straight trunk, all forms require the trunk line to have a natural, relaxed stretch and just-right bends. If the material is a multi-trunk clump, besides paying attention to the above two points, also pay attention to changes in the height and size of the trunks, the primary and secondary relationships, and the changes in density and gathering-scattering.

3. In lacebark pine bonsai, from the base of the trunk to the tip, there is constant variation, such as the thickness of the trunk, its curves and straightness, the position of branches on the trunk, and the texture and color of the bark. Wherever you think the upper part of the trunk lacks variation or looks ordinary, cut it off there; if you think the section you kept is not tall enough, in pursuit of perfect coordination, set up the highest-positioned branch to replace the tip.

4. Lacebark pine bonsai often uses simple mechanical correction to adjust the extending posture of the trunk, making the trunk line more vigorous and vivid. Curves and straightness are both innate; the only aim is for the trunk line to meet the beauty requirements of lacebark pine bonsai and to fully bring out its characteristics, so that any of them may become a fine work. In general, the trunk is given an appropriate bend to express vigor and winding curvature.

Potting Lacebark Pine Bonsai

1. Choosing a pot: Lacebark pine bonsai has an ancient, elegant posture, and purple clay pottery pots or glazed pottery pots are commonly used. The pot shape depends on the tree shape: cascade style uses a tall, deep cylindrical pot; slanting trunk style and lying trunk style use a medium-deep rectangular or oval pot; exposed-root style and root-on-rock style use a relatively shallow pot.

2. Soil: The potting soil should be fertile, moist, loose in texture, well-draining, slightly acidic sandy loam, with a layer of coarse sandy soil placed at the bottom of the pot to aid drainage.

3. Planting: Transplanting into pots is best done before spring bud break. Large seedlings should be kept with their original soil, and dead roots and overly long roots should be cut away so the fibrous roots spread out in the potting soil; press the soil firm so it closely contacts the roots, which benefits growth and survival.

4. Care: Care and management are the continuation of lacebark pine bonsai shaping, in the stage of perfecting the care of the work, lasting as short as two or three years, or as long as ten, twenty years, or even longer. The main contents include potting soil preparation, fertilizer use, water control, site selection, reshaping and reworking, repotting and soil replacement, and pest and disease control. Among these, shaping and reworking work directly relates to building the image of the work, while the other items, from the perspective of the healthy growth of the lacebark pine bonsai, help bring the work ever closer to perfection.