Eastern White Pine - Problematic Species

I have never seen a good Eastern White Pine bonsai, but I found a great deal on a mini version and decided to pot it up anyway.
When I got it, it was the middle of July and it was sitting in the trash pile at a nursery in a burlap bag. The root ball was bone dry, but I saw new needles on most tips.

I got it for $5, took it home and put it in a grow box and kept it in the shade the rest of the season.
Last year, I didn't touch it. I just kept it watered and fertilized.
This spring, I put it in a bonsai pot.

The trunk is great, but the internodes are super long.
I will have to do some major zigzag type wiring to bring the branches in.

Anyone have a decent looking Eastern White Pine without leggy growth?

...y'know, with a snip-snip here or there, the fact that the internodes are so long might not be such a big deal. It looks a little airy up in the top, but that's not a crime.

Nice trunk. The lack of response is because most of those who have tried, have had poor results. My P. strobus is constantly disappointing me. Tough tree to get something good out of. But a few are great, Jim Doyle has one. I would thin the beast out and work on developing a shape. I mean pick a leader(s) and then prune out the longest and barest of the shrubby branches. With yearly pruning, and bud selection, you can get some budding back, usually only on wood younger than 5 years old. My experience has been, the back budding never comes where you want it, but occasionally one gets lucky. Wood stays flexible for many years, wiring will be an on going yearly operation. Good luck, in time you might end up with something good. You have the first ingredients, a nice thick trunk and initial branching fairly low.

Here is an Eastern White Pine (p. strobus) that I think is pretty good at the NC Arboretum.



And another, fairly decent one, at a recent Carolina Bonsai Expo.

Those are good looking trees, but it looks like they have the same problems.
Leggy growth and branches that won't hold position after taking wire off.

Well, a tree (species) is what a tree is.  I don't think that Arthur is having that problem with the tree at the Arboretum, and I have a shohin/mame that's behaving "pretty well."

You have to work within the characteristics of the species.  If you want a white pine to look like a Japanese pine, I think you will be spitting into the wind, and should get a Japanese pine.  

When you see a white pine in the woods, or alone in a pasture, they're not compact and orderly like the trees in the Orient.  The white pine lends itself to informality and even to literati, as the Arboretum tree shows.  I think the tree in the second picture is still searching for a suitable style.