sorry will

I know, but the wife insisted I get something for our tenth anniversary, and I've never had a pine before and it looked at me so nicely, and I got Corin Tomlinson to check it out for me. The photo doesn't do it justice mind:

No need to apologise Bobby.

ooh ya ****er. Never crossed my mind that. Now I'm thrown into confusion. Buddha says choice is a trap. Now I'm discombobulated.

What is....disconbobbyulated?

treed off

why treed off Bob? In time you might decide to reduce this Pine. I am offering advice, not an order.

In a Terry Tibbs kind of way...Talk to me!

I was only engaging in humorous punnage and badinage. I think you're idea was groovy, but if there's one thing I've learned from asking stupid questions on this board is to stand back and look for a while. I want to get to know the tree before I act. Plus I've never had one before so I want to get to grips with the horticulture. The needles are a bit untidy and long and I need to learn about all that business first, like reducing the length and keeping it neat once I have. I was talking to a colleague at graft today about this and I realised that why I like the practice is because it's the opposite from the rest of my activities which are fast noisy and frantic, whereas this is slow and quiet. Starting to get some action on the maple now too ( I don't know what the official term a padowan calls his jedi teacher or I'd use it, so I'll just go with:) sifu

the legend of facejacker.

Bob

The only stupid question is the one you don't ask mate

All the best

Andy

You mention scruffy looking, overly long needles. White pines vary quite a lot and some have a slight curve or twist in the needle. The length of needles can be contolled with watering but this is a bit more advanced. As you gain experience, and a knowledge of this tree, you will understand how little water you can get away with. Whats the graft like?

the watering thing is interesting. also curious about feeding too. Looking forward to getting to know this tree. The graft seems a bit abrupt, but then I don't have much to compare it to. In the grand scheme of things, £130 isbn't a huge amount of money but was enjough to make sure I wasn't getting a total ringer. I an learn as I go with this one, and hopefully not be polishing a turd.

White Pines need feeding well. They are not as good as other Pines, for back budding. I have found that a poorly fed WP will only have one bud at the terminals. A well fed one will have three, one large bud and two either side. This strength in the tree will promote back budding after pruning.