White Pine: An Interview With Jerry Vlcek by David Johnson ... Jerry, eastern white pine or Pinus strobus invokes a recognition among many people impressed with its beauty especially for those trees sculpted by the wind. Unfortunately this admiration for eastern white pines has rarely been translated into quality bonsai. The main problems seem to be the long needles, long internodes, generally youngish bark and the scarcity of good material. Eastern white pine has been one of your favourites. This year you had an article titled, "Bonsai Culture of Eastern White Pine" in Bonsai: The Journal of the American Bonsai Society/Spring 2000. ... Question: What do you consider to be best features of the pinus strobus? Answer: The very strong growth and beautiful soft needles make it the most beautiful pine in the world. The tree is also easy to cultivate as bonsai. Q: What is the best soil mixture? A: Eastern white pines like a richer soil than other pines. A mixture I would suggest would be 1/3 sand, 1/3 decomposed organic material and 1/3 loamy clay/silt mix. Q: What are your watering guide lines? A: The eastern white pine likes more moisture than other pines as the soil mix above suggests. Q: How well do the roots react to pruning and bending? A: They react well. In fact the tree re-grows roots faster than jack pine. Q: When and how do you wire the tree? Do you use extensive branch protection such as raffia due to the soft bark and bleeding nature of white pines in general? A: All cuts bleed profusely on white pine which is a nuisance and there is little one can do to prevent it except, perhaps wiring in the winter but even then the tree bleeds when it wakes up in the spring. Bleeding is a definite advantage in needle shortening by cutting, since the cuts do not brown but develop white resin ends. Q: When branch pruning, do you leave stubs or make flush cuts? Do you cut large branches gradually? A: I prefer to leave stubs because of the bleeding of flush cuts. Q: Does the tree bud back readily on new and old wood? A: Yes, it will bud back on vigorous trees. If a tree experiences winter kill from desiccating winds in the apex, the tree, if vigorous, will produce new buds in the living areas. The eastern white pine is a very strong tree, a survivor. Q: How do you get needle reduction? A: The principal way to get needle reduction is through branch ramification. With short multiple branches you can more easily get short needles. Long unramified branches produce long needles. I try to develop branch ramification by cutting needles which stresses the tree and encourages back budding, and fertilizing and pruning. A similar process occurs in the development of Christmas trees on tree farms with the constant pruning that promotes dense ramified trees. A more complex way to increase ramification and crown design is by approach grafting in a way used by David Rowe with his Austrian pine. Because of the eastern white pine's thin bark on young branches all that one may need do is to squeeze the two branches together and wrap with raffia without cutting and exposing the cambium which is very close to the surface. Q: How do you fertilize? A: I fertilize during the growing season but in small amounts. Eastern white pine is able to synthesize nitrogen from the air through the mycorrhiza. Q: Are there any insect or disease problems associated with eastern white pine? A: Yes, such as white pine blister rust and white pine weevil, easily controlled in bonsai culture. The most serious is winter burn, a browning of or dieback of needles because of their desiccation by the wind. Therefore trees should be protected from wind during the winter. Q: Are there any unique pinus strobus characteristics? A: The soft grey bark persists till later years but beautiful "turtle bark" on old trees is the final result. There is a strong tendency for the tree's soft branches to "go with the wind" resulting in the best wind shaped trees of any. The shushing sound of the needles as wind passes through them is another pleasurable characteristic. ... The gallery of examples of eastern white pine bonsai included with this article: Photo 1 shows a freshly dug up tree held up by my native friend Conrad. The tree has suffered winter burn dieback and has only two branches left. Photo 2 is a tree that survived a forest fire with only the lowest branch left. The crown that you see was developed from that branch over a 20-year span of time. A segment of its developmental history is shown in my videotape. The tree, about 110 cm tall, is very old; its age can be deduced from its thick turtle back bark. The tree has only now undergone serious branch alignment and its future, under a new owner, calls for further branch ramification with the concomitant needle reduction. Photo 3 is a tall, freshly styled twin-trunk pine which lost all its needles after transplanting into a bonsai pot. By next year, most of the needles had grown back from left over buds, a tribute to the vigour of the tree. Collected white pines lend themselves often to literati and wind swept designs as shown in Photos 4, and 5. Finally, Photo 6 shows a graphically enhanced painting by Christine Schmalenberg which her husband Martin used during a white pine demo styling at the MABA 2000 conference in Detroit. The actual result of his demo came very close to its abstract painting version.