Stone Lantern: Pine

Does anyone know if the pine book by Stone Lantern is just about white and black pines, or other pines too?

!. This is really a series of magazine articles which appeared in Japanese Bonsai magazines.
2. It is about White Pines and Black Pines. Other pines might be mentioned but all the techniques are aimed at these two pines.
3. These are English translations of Japanese magazine articles.

oh ok thanks Billy

on a side note, another great reason to join a club [if you can] is access to information resources. our public library has a respectable inventory of introductory books, but nothing to speak of as far as intermediate level goes. our club's library fills that gap nicely & allows me to look a book over thoroughly before deciding whether i 'need' to own a copy for ongoing reference.

hurray for bonsai clubs everywhere !

Jake16 wrote:Does anyone know if the pine book by Stone Lantern is just about white and black pines, or other pines too?

I recommend the Stone Lantern Pine book very highly. Yes it is only about P. thunbergii and P. parviflora, the Jap. Black and the Jap. White pines. And it is written with the Japanese long growing season in mind. It is a collection of some of the best articles written over the years and published in Bonsai Today. It would be difficult to purchase all the original magazines, as they are all out of print now. Some are still available, but putting together all of them is an undertaking.

The accumulated techniques discussed in the book ARE the set of standard techniques used for all pines. These are the base models for how to handle all pines currently used in for bonsai. The two sections, JWP and JBP are group as the two species have fairly different growth habits, and the techniques cited under each category work best on that species or on other pines following that growth pattern.

When discussing other species of pines, it is important to understand the growth habits of that species. In a general sort of way, most pines seem to fall into one of 2 patterns in their growth habits. It has turned out to be an excellent, useful approximation to lump virtually all species under the horticultural grouping of "Grows like a Japanese Black Pine" or "Grows like a Japanese White Pine". This useful approximation really makes it easier to handle species that have not been cultivated as bonsai long enough to have extensive catalogs of proven techniques unique to that species. One usually notes which sets of techniques to use, "like a JWP" or like a "JBP" and then the "except for:" modifier is added.

The way to use this book, and the excellent companion on Junipers by Stone Lantern, is to study the techniques. Then modify the techniques, and the timing of when to do those techniques, to adapt them to your specific growing conditions, and the species you are actually working on.

One draw back of this book is that maybe half of the techniques are only for older trees in advanced stages of development. This isn't always made clear in the article. But the articles on growing JBP from seed, and the article on creating a JBP cascade are priceless and intended to be used on young, raw material. All in all a great collection.

The pine book and the juniper book by Stone Lantern are essentials for any grower who want to make the transition from beginner to intermediate or advanced Bonsai-ista.

Thank you Leo,

Maybe I will pick this book up.

Just read this book. There is definately some good information in there - much of which would apply to all pines (styling advice, pot selection etc). On the down side, it is somewhat repetitive being taken from several magazine articles. In my opinion it could have been edited much better. Worth the money in my opinion though.