If you don't take a firm hand with black pine bonsai care, how can you catch people's eye?

Second Brother says, if you don't take a firm hand with black pine bonsai care, how can you make it catch people's eye?

Second Brother, who loves caring for black pine bonsai, says that without mastering good care and branch-shaping and wiring techniques, you won't win anyone's favor. Because black pine is fairly common and cheap, comparatively few people like to grow it. So to cultivate a high-grade black pine bonsai, without superb shaping and wiring skills, it really can't be done.

We all know that black pine, also known as white-bud pine, is an evergreen tree with grayish-black bark. It blooms in April, with solitary flowers; the female flowers grow at the tips of new buds and are purple, with most seed scales (carpels) overlapping and arranged in a sphere. It likes light, tolerates drought and poor soil, and does not tolerate waterlogging or cold. It is suited to warm, humid maritime climate regions, and grows best in deep, loose, sandy soil containing humus. So to care well for black pine, digging it up is key; you must ensure the root ball stays intact, and the bigger the root ball it comes with, the better. Because black pine has few fibrous roots, a black pine with a large root ball is easier to keep alive.

If you want your black pine bonsai to catch people's eye, you have to take a firm hand with the black pine. Of course, I mean this can only be done after it is alive. The so-called firm hand means that once it has survived, you need to shape the black pine bonsai.

In shaping and wiring the black pine bonsai, I focus my efforts mainly on three aspects. First, stretching and shaping the trunk; for trunks that are difficult to stretch, don't hesitate, just saw them off, but be sure to leave 3-5 small branches and leaves, so it's easier to start shaping from the small branches.

For shaping the small branches of the black pine, use protective plastic-coated aluminum wire so as not to injure the branches. At the same time, for shaping and wiring the small branches and leaves of the black pine, follow your own ideas and take a one-step approach. So that it won't suffer again later.

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