Could anyone make a positive identification of this pine? The tree is a little over 20 years old and was grown by a family member from seeds from a cone brought back from the island of Rhodes, where the parent trees somehow manage to survive growing in the cracks between rocks on the steep hillsides. Approximately 1.8m (6 feet) tall, grown in a container in England, morning sun, afternoon shade. I read that Turkish pine, Pinus brutia, is common there, but I am not confident of my ability to tell the difference between this and Aleppo pine, Pinus halepensis, or indeed other related species. There are far more species of pine than I realised! Thanks.
Likely Pinus brutia, but not easy to tell from P. halepensis with a dwarfed bonsai specimen like this. Have you still got the cone the seed came from?
I'll ask about the cone, but I doubt it after twenty-odd years. I figured the dwarfing would make it more difficult to tell, but at least that has narrowed it down to two choices with Pinus brutia as clear favourite. Thank you. Any tips on repotting? Particularly best time of year. It is (long over-)due to be repotted and I have volunteered for the job. I hear pines are less keen than most trees on being bare rooted or root pruned; the current plan is to just move it up to a bigger pot with a well drained, gritty, soil based medium, and pretty much leave the rootball intact. Cheers.
That sounds about right. But it would be worth asking on a bonsai forum, as pines are popular bonsai subjects and there's a lot of people out there who know far more about growing pines in pots than I do.
