Japanese Black Pine Progression - Exposed Root

[cheap_walmart_art]

Here is a short progression of an exposed root Japanese Black Pine that I obtained from Twisted Nature Bonsai back in ‘21 I think.

More or less how it looked when I acquired it:


First styling in my care:


this was sometime in 2022, playing with front:


Here we are grown up today in June ‘24


And after June ‘24 removal of candles. I think I like this front best.

 

[Paradox]

Good start.
I like the front you chose in 3rd and the last pictures

 

[cheap_walmart_art]

did some branch selection and thinning out today. The needles got away on this one a bit and the lower branches are getting a bit long and spindly for my taste. Hopefully will get some back budding next summer and can cut back some of the length. Also really worked on thinning out the top to two branches all around.

 

[cheap_walmart_art]

August 2025. The Reddit folks want me to grow a leader and put more taper into the trunk. Thoughts?

Oh who am I kidding, we all know I’ll be lazy about this like all the rest.

 

[SeanS]

Cool little tree! I like that lowest branch/pad but feel the top needs to be brought down and compacted. Right now the top looks completely untrained/unstyled compared to the bottom branch.

 

[Ply]

The interest in this tree is in the neagari, not the trunk. You could ofcourse grow a leader to thicken the trunk, but I dont think it's necessary in this case. It'll also take years to both grow a leader and heal over the wound. Again - not worth it imo.

I agree with @SeanS advise to wire the top branches down. Also keep an eye on removing T branches and bifurcating branches rather then trifurcating. It's hard to see in the picture but there might be some going on. In the short term it'll make the tree a little more bare, but in the long run you'll end up with a much better tree for it.

If you'd really want to restyle the tree you could remove the lowest branch going to the left, and instead grow the one to the right out. That way you'll have the negative space on the left side which I think will complement the neagari nicely. But again that's a long term proces, so the above is honestly probably the quickest route.