Red Pine Bankan Style in Development…

This pine has been sitting on the benches here for almost ten years without much happening to it, except for the transition from Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa) foliage to Red Pine foliage (Pinus densiflora).

And even after this wiring we ended a bit shy of where we want it. The grafts on the tree haven’t grown long enough to complete a balanced design. A small amount of foliage should appear to the right for better balance, and in the wiring session a shoot was selected to fulfill that future.

Red Pine grafted about 4 years ago onto Ponderosa Pine trunk.

Small shoot selected to create a foliage pad to the right of the trunkline, here shown tucked into a bend, continuing the tied-in-a-knot feeling.

And our unfinished styling—more growth will need to happen there to the upper right of the trunkline before balance can be found. Sometimes designing a tree with grafting is a waiting game. But Red Pine is a vigorous grower and in about 3 years there should be a pad where we want it. We’ll check in later for a review down the road. Many might wonder about the title with the word ‘bankan‘. The style of the tree is bankan. One might mistake this for bunjin, but bankan means ‘twisted’. It’s a crazy trunkline and gets many comments in the yard, I’m only embarrassed that we don’t have a more completed tree after all these years.