I have one I planted one and a half years ago, it was small, but now is moving upwards! It has a nice natural slant to it, too. It seems to be quite slow-growing, is not more than 2 feet or 2.5 feet tall now, and it was almost that when I planted it. The background is a bit dark owing to my camera setting, and the flash went off to highlight the tree, but it was taken just now at 9:45 am in very cloudy misty weather. I am trying to create a Japanese-type front garden for my townhouse...
I'm crazy about P. Thunbergii. I have a bunch that I grew from seed. I grow a few grafts: 'Kyokko Yastsubusa', 'Banshoho' and a dozen or so mikawas. When I first started my garden in West Cape May, NJ (1999) I found a group of 5 pot bound 3-4 footers at a local nursery. Mr Church let me take them for 8 bucks each. I planted 3 of them and kept 2 in pots. One of the planted out pines is in full sun in fast draining, sandy soil. Today it's about 25' tall with a gnarly trunk. It's going to be a beauty in no time (relatively) at all. The trees that are more shaded are also very good looking but not nearly as vigorous. One of the potted plants went back into the ground a few years back. I sited it in a similarly sunny and exposed spot. It took off but I've curbed it's enthusiasm with my Niwaki practice. Wish I could could show you some of these plants but everything is buried in snow right now.
janetdoyle, I am very happy my pine will probably get to look like yours, I imagined it would maintain the quite long juvenile needles. I am curious to see yours too, Poetry to Burn. Actually there is snow here too, that picture is from last summer, yet I had not been eager to post it until I saw pinus thunbergii was missing from the conifers photo gallery. Let's wait a little more for spring, and in the meanwhile maybe I will do some reading about Niwaki...
Janet, guessing you may have a Pinus thunbergii 'Yatsubusa' cultivar, a smaller and slower growing variety.
Wonderful! I do believe it DID say that on the tag.... I have it tucked in a binder but not the time to go look at the moment -- I shall, and I'll let you know! I will also look up the others you mentioned to see how they look -- will get back to this.
Yes, I located my tag, it is a 'Yatsubusa' and I have read this has actually been renamed to Pinus thunbergii 'Sayonara', that yatsubusa means "dwarf" in Japanese... I don't feel I really know the black pines at all, yet, and photos I have looked up of Yatsubusa show such a fuller tree than mine, which seems more extended in shape. I have not touched it yet for pruning, as I am reading up on that and don't want to do the wrong thing. I have a book named Niwaki; Pruning, Training and Shaping Trees the Japanese Way by a Jake Hobson who apparently lived in Japan to learn the skill... an interesting book, accessible for the beginner. I will look at photos of the other pines mentioned above as time permits -- have seen several already. Have not yet absorbed them enough to have anything sensible to say...
