Colorado’s Literati Ponderosa Pine

[Colorado]

Ponderosa Pine! It was collected by Todd Schlafer in approximately 2017. I purchased it in August 2020 for a group workshop with Todd. I had always envisioned a literati design for this tree.

Here it is in August 2020 after initial styling. At this point I didn’t want to remove too much foliage, and in hindsight, it wasn’t really a very good design.

In spring 2021 I repotted it into an unglazed Sam Miller oval:

I let it recover for the remainder of 2021, through spring and summer 2022.

Now it is mid-August. I removed the lower branch and redesigned the apex to move this more towards a literati feel.


Next year I will work on further refining the foliage and increasing ramification. I did not want to remove bottom growing needles at this time, because I already removed so much foliage. I applied its first application of Biogold for the year and placed back out on the bench

 

[Colorado]

Shari and bark detail:

 

[misfit11]

Very nice bunjin. I agree with your decision to jin that branch. I'm looking forward to seeing this develop.

 

[Colorado]

Very nice bunjin. I agree with your decision to jin that branch. I'm looking forward to seeing this develop.

Thanks! It feels like forever that I’d been thinking about removing that branch.

 

[Colorado]

The moss and lichen on this tree caught my eye in the morning light, so I snapped a couple photos:




Tree is doing very well this year with some nice back budding.

 

[BrightsideB]

The moss and lichen on this tree caught my eye in the morning light, so I snapped a couple photos:

View attachment 494021
View attachment 494020

Tree is doing very well this year with some nice back budding.

Looks really nice! Awesome tree! Will be cool seeing it become more refined. It’s always nice seeing all the organisms that grow with the tree’s as they are being developed.

 

[yenling83]

Killer Bunjin Pondo! I really

Ponderosa Pine! It was collected by Todd Schlafer in approximately 2017. I purchased it in August 2020 for a group workshop with Todd. I had always envisioned a literati design for this tree.

Here it is in August 2020 after initial styling. At this point I didn’t want to remove too much foliage, and in hindsight, it wasn’t really a very good design.
View attachment 451343
In spring 2021 I repotted it into an unglazed Sam Miller oval:
View attachment 451345
I let it recover for the remainder of 2021, through spring and summer 2022.
View attachment 451346
Now it is mid-August. I removed the lower branch and redesigned the apex to move this more towards a literati feel.
View attachment 451347
View attachment 451348
Next year I will work on further refining the foliage and increasing ramification. I did not want to remove bottom growing needles at this time, because I already removed so much foliage. I applied its first application of Biogold for the year and placed back out on the bench

Killer Bunjin Pondo, great work! I like that you removed the lower branch-it commits the tree to a Bunjin style and improves the feel. Do you plan on shortening the Jin from the previous branch? I think shortening it-close to or slightly larger than the others along the trunk would make it feel more natural. What do you think about shifting the tree to the right or the left? Great work!

 

[Colorado]

Killer Bunjin Pondo! I really

Killer Bunjin Pondo, great work! I like that you removed the lower branch-it commits the tree to a Bunjin style and improves the feel. Do you plan on shortening the Jin from the previous branch? I think shortening it-close to or slightly larger than the others along the trunk would make it feel more natural. What do you think about shifting the tree to the right or the left? Great work!

Thanks so much for the kind words! I had been looking at that Jin for awhile now, and your post was just the push I needed to finally shorten it! I also tweaked the branches a little bit.





Hopefully the needles will be a little shorter this year, we’ll see



Interesting point about shifting it to one side or the other. I could see maybe shifting it to the left? What do you think?

 

[Vincent Tanner]

Awesome tree! I love it without the branch. The short jin is great.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Trunk movement great. However for long needle pine needs to be taller tree.

 

[Colorado]

Trunk movement great. However for long needle pine needs to be taller tree.

That’s a fair critique. It is very challenging to achieve any sort of scale with small to mid-sized ponderosa. To be honest, the thought has crossed my mind to graft it over with limber pine.

 

[Colorado]

Snapped a quick pic of this one out on the bench today. Soaking up the sun

 

[Mike Westervelt]

Not sure Ponderosa and Limber pines are compatible, never seen/heard of grafting 2 needle pines with 5 needle pines or vice versa.

Does anybody know of it being done?

Also there are techniques for reducing needle length in Ponderosas.

 

[Colorado]

Not sure Ponderosa and Limber pines are compatible, never seen/heard of grafting 2 needle pines with 5 needle pines or vice versa.

Does anybody know of it being done?

Also there are techniques for reducing needle length in Ponderosas.

I don’t know much of anything about grafting to be honest. Ha!

But yes, I’ve been trying to reduce the needles. I’ve only been working on the tree for a few years so I think with time the needles will get quite a bit smaller. The needles on one of my other ponderosas are about half the size of this one.

I didn’t fertilize it at all this year until today. I just put on a very light application of Biogold. I’ll probably do one or two fish emulsion root drenches this fall and that will be it. We’ll see if the needles are any shorter next year.

 

[KiwiPlantGuy]

Not sure Ponderosa and Limber pines are compatible, never seen/heard of grafting 2 needle pines with 5 needle pines or vice versa.

Does anybody know of it being done?

Also there are techniques for reducing needle length in Ponderosas.

Hi Mike,
That got me thinking, then remembered that they use either JBP or Scots Pine as rootstock(both 2 needle pine I think or at least JBP is) for JWP being 5 needle pine.
Charles

 

[Tentakelaertje]

Yes, JWP with a blue-ish foliage colour is grafted to JBP, usually there's also a rough visual transition where bark and caliper radically change. Jwp on its own roots has fresh green foliage colour. Most jwp with big trunks and craggy bark has jbp understock.

 

[Mike Westervelt]

Well of course they do @Tentakelaerje, that was dumb of me, most JWP are grafted onto JBP stock as seedlings.
I've just never seen anyone do detached scion grafting of 5 needle to 2 needle pines

 

[pandacular]

Since the discussion of needle reduction on pondos in Colorado came up, I thought I'd share this one I saw at the RMBS convention this Sunday by Mike Britten.

I'm sure there's some genetics at play, but it seems that you can reduce ponderosa needles quite a bit, and Mike is in your area!

 

[jindog]

Snapped a quick pic of this one out on the bench today. Soaking up the sun
View attachment 506082

Looks awesome! I am hoping to get mine like that someday. What resources have you found helpful regarding the care of Ponderosa? I am fairly new to the species and have been reading Larry Jackel's book.

 

[Colorado]

Since the discussion of needle reduction on pondos in Colorado came up, I thought I'd share this one I saw at the RMBS convention this Sunday by Mike Britten.
View attachment 506755
I'm sure there's some genetics at play, but it seems that you can reduce ponderosa needles quite a bit, and Mike is in your area!

Cool! I’ll have to ask Mike about that one. I am not entirely convinced that tree is a ponderosa. It certainly could be though.

I’ve seen some really small needles on some of the pondys at Todd’s place!