Eastern White Pine - Probably
This is my second oldest tree and my second favorite. I have a pair of ginkgoes that I've grown from seeds from the tree at my childhood home that are about 25 years old that are my faves but more on them later.
I'm not sure of the specific species of pine this is. It has 5 needles so possibly an eastern white pine. I collected this tree from a construction site in 2006. Since then I haven't really had an idea for how to style it. I made some crucial mistakes early on that made it a bit of an oddball. I had basically resigned myself to calling it a literati style for lack of any other apparent style to it. I had let the trunk grow straight up with the two branches off to each side.
This year - 2024 - I finally saw a windswept tree in the making. The larger branch has a wonderful wire scarred bend in it that with the right angle of the trunk starts to have that look of a cliffside tree pushed by nature to grow in one direction. The smaller branch is still pliable enough to start bringing it over the top and into the windswept direction. This is the first year in many years that I've wired anything on this tree. It was also potted into a bonsai training pot (from Weigert's)
When I first collected this tree I did some bad pruning and lost several limbs. That's why there are only the two main ones. In hindsight, and with some more experience, I think I was hoping for some back budding but didn't realize that to get that you can't cut off all of the growth. You have to leave some green beyond where you will eventually cut or there won't be any back budding - at least with this pine. I didn't know any better and just chopped to shape and lost limbs. Lesson learned.
Now though I think this tree is starting to come into its own. The training, having just started this year, will be enjoyable to develop. My plan for the rest of 2024 is to leave the current wiring in place until fall or maybe winter, then next spring I will start to refine the smaller branches and maybe prune a few back, remove a few that need to come off.
