Evergreen Gardenworks
2024
Descriptive Catalog

Pinus (Pines) Needled evergreen trees and shrubs. Pines are classified by the number of needles in a bundle and by their cones. All White Pines have five needles and so on. Pines have differentiated evolutionally so that they appear in nearly all regions of the northern hemisphere. There are no true pines in the southern hemisphere. We are interested in pines that have great ornamental value without being too large for the small yard or garden and pines that are traditionally used for bonsai. The oldest bonsai plants in the world are pines. In general, they prefer full sun, well drained sandy soil conditions and watering that will allow them to get a little dry between watering periods. Most pines are cold hardy to most regions of the U.S. If a pine does not fit this pattern and requires special treatment it will be mentioned. Please see additional information under Pinus parviflora on grafting for bonsai purposes.

Please note that spelling, punctuation and capitalization of Japanese cultivar names varies significantly. We have used Steve Pilacik's Japanese Black Pine, 1993 as our reference (available at Matsumomiji.com), except that we have left out the hyphens between the syllables representing the Japanese characters.

Pinus densiflora (Japanese Red Pine, Aka Matsu) -20ø Needles in 2's that are up to 5 inches long but usually shorter. Fast growing tree with reddish bark. In Japan it is thought of as 'feminine' because of the soft informal appearance. Not for hot dry areas, protect from any sort of strong wind.

7220 Pinus densiflora 'Pendula' A dwarf weeping form where the branches hang straight down. Good for cascading over a wall or container. Can make a fabulous larger bonsai.
Specimen

Pinus parviflora (Five Needle Pine, Japanese White Pine) -20ø One of the most revered plants for traditional Japanese bonsai. Slow growth to 20 feet or more, but usually grown in situations where its growth is controlled. 2-3 inch green needles in 5's are white striped giving them a very blue appearance. Needles reduce quite nicely in older bonsai plants, but tend to be clustered at the tips giving the plants a very open appearance unless the new candles are removed in the spring to encourage shorter and denser side growth. Seedlings are quite variable, and growth is slow and often weak when on their own roots. We have discontinued selling seedlings.

Most Japanese white pines used for bonsai are grafted cultivars, including a number of dwarfs. Nearly all of the cultivars were developed in Japan over the centuries. We graft all our pines as low as possible on Japanese Black Pine rootstock.

Japanese white pine is difficult to grow in most regions of this country, even when grafted to a stronger rootstock. It prefers a deep cold winter dormancy, mild dry summers without extreme heat or high humidity. It is susceptible to a number of fungal diseases. Those in the deep south and the hottest areas of the country should probably not attempt to grow this pine unless you have a lot of experience, or know of someone in your area who can successfully grow them. We had problems related to heat and light until we began to grow them under 40% shadecloth in summer (direct sunlight in winter). These pines really perform best in bright morning sunlight rather than under shade cloth as long as the temperature stays below 90F. There are two problems related to summer heat. Above about 95F under direct sunlight the needles will begin to scorch. Above 105F the scorching will be severe and you can expect to lose plants. The other problem is related to the soil temperature. Pots tend to heat up above ambient temperatures in direct sunlight. This can cause root decline and death of the plants. Growing under shadecloth in severe climates solves both of these problems.

So that you are not misled about the size of plants and the time needed to make them into bonsai, let me briefly describe the process. A new or one year graft will have only one shoot grafted onto the understock, it will be from 2 to 6 inches long depending on the cultivar and the length of the candles formed. Only rarely will it have any branches at all at this stage, wood is just too rare to use larger scions. Two year old grafts will usually have grown another center candle and probably some secondary candles (branches) at the base of the new center candle, another 2 to 6 inches. So a two year graft will be about four to six inches tall with branches just starting. We recommend that no pruning be done at this stage to insure the survival of the plant. With proper pruning and shaping your plant will not even begin to look like the ones in the picture books until about year five, -and for the slower dwarfs- ten years. We feel that pines are not safe to sell before they reach this two year stage.

Pines for bonsai should be grafted very low so that the union smoothly blends into the nebari (root crown area). It is more difficult and time consuming to graft this way and grafters are only beginning to recognize that there is a market for bonsai, making grafts of this sort very hard to find. The very best grafts are 'low' grafts where the scion is grafted just above some existing roots. These grafts should be buried right up to the graft union after the first year. After a few years it is impossible to tell that these plants were even grafted. We now graft all of our White Pines to Black Pine, Pinus thunbergii, understock. This gives them additional vigor and stronger, more disease resistant roots.

For more information on grafting pines see the article Root Grafts for Bonsai

Because of the lack of interest and the difficulty in grafting and growing these white pines we are discontinuing all the cultivars with the exception of 'Arakawa' and 'Koto Hime' which we consider to be exceptional trees with strong growth characteristics and rough bark on 'Arakawa' that will completely match the black pine understock. We will have some other cultivars available for a few years, but once they are gone we will have no more.

We are phasing out most of our Japanese White Pine but will leave this descriptions for your information.

7280 Pinus parviflora 'Adcock's Dwarf' This is one of the smallest White Pine dwarf cultivars. It has short (5/8 inch) needles and a very compact growth habit. It is a vigorous cultivar and one of the best survivors of this difficult species. They will make a very fine shohin bonsai. It has very distinctive long thin cream colored buds and lacks the red hairs of most of the other cultivars. DISCONTINUED

7285 Pinus parviflora 'Ara Kawa' This cultivar is one of the 'cork bark' white pines. It has 'warty' bark even when young which forms small scales as it ages. It does not form corky ridges as does Nishiki Matsu. It is a moderately growing cultivar with two inch needles with good blue color. It is a fairly compact plant and will make fine bonsai over about 18 inches tall. It is absolutely essential that it be grafted low in order to have a uniform bark transition at the graft union. Pictured is a two year old graft in a one gallon container. FOUR YEAR ONE GALLON LOW GRAFTS $200

7290 Pinus parviflora 'Burk's Bonsai' This is a shrubby form of very compact habit. The needles are are similar in length and color to 'Zuisho' but the overall habit is more compact.
DISCONTINUED

7320 Pinus parviflora 'Hagarumo' 'Hagarumo' is reputed to be the smallest and most congested Japanese white pine in nursery production. It is certainly tiny, often forming no more than a bun of foliage. As it gets older it begins to open up a bit, but is still very compact. Needle length is about one inch full size, but will reduce to less than 1/2 inch very easily. The foliage is a rich blue green color. Grafting these to Pinus thunbergii understock gives them a marked increase in vigor. Despite its small stature, it forms a stocky trunk. It also buds back nicely. Pictured is one of our two year old grafts on Black pine. Specimen plants

7324 Pinus parviflora 'Kiyo Hime'A dwarf with short 1 to 1 1/2 inch blue gray needles, slow growing, extremely rare in this county. Similar to 'Koto Hime' except that the needles are a little longer and a bit more striped. This is a fairly compact cultivar making it an excellent candidate for bonsai.
DISCONTINUED

7327 Pinus parviflora 'Koto Hime' This cultivar is extremely rare in this country. It has short (one inch) needles and a very compact growth habit. It is much more vigorous than many of the other dwarf cultivars and will make a fine shohin. This is Brent's favorite White Pine. Pictured is one of our two year old grafts to Black pine. DISCONTINUED

7350 Pinus parviflora 'Ogon Janome' (Golden Dragon Eye White Pine) Irregular dwarf form growing into a mound. Needles have bright yellow variegations or bands that give the a Dragon Eye appearance. This plant is truly spectacular with nice short needles and will make an incredible bonsai if you have the patience to keep its longer internodes under control. Stems are thinner than most other Japanese White Pines. It is more susceptible to leaf scorch and thus needs more shade than most other cultivars.
DISCONTINUED

7359 Pinus parviflora 'Zuisho' This is a short needled bluish green cultivar, greener than most others. It is rather slow growing, and slower from grafts than our other cultivars. The claim to fame for 'Zuisho' is that it can be grown from cuttings, although it is difficult. Stems are thinner and internodes longer on this cultivar than most of the others, although with age it does form a nice thick trunk. Grafting to Pinus thunbergii helps it form thicker stems with more vigor. Pictured is one of our three year old grafts. SPECIMEN PLANTS

Pinus thunbergii (Japanese Black Pine, Kuromatsu) A wonderfully hardy, tough tree that is native to the sea cliffs of Japan, enduring gale winds and salt spray. In Japan, gardeners grow and shape this tree with bamboo and twine, lashing the branches to form broad flat foliage areas to recreate the look of the twisted and tortured cliff dwellers. A twice yearly pruning will create flat pads of very dense short branches and completely control the size and shape of this tree. In June (timing varies with climate) remove all the new candles that are longer than one inch. Many new shorter candles will form a whorl of short branches. In November reduce this whorl of branches to a flat forked branch. In this manner the 3 inch green needles June be reduced to 2 or even 1 inch. Having said, if only it were this easy. Maintenance of mature shaped trees is not too difficult, but developing small trees into suitable bonsai stock takes decades and the complexity is probably the biggest challenge in bonsai. Read all our pine articles and blog posts for more on this fascinating subject. Some of the oldest living bonsai plants are Japanese Black Pine. It has been a traditional bonsai plant for hundreds of years.

See the notes under Pinus parviflora for information on grafting techniques.

In the dwarf category or yatsubusa type (but not the corked bark cultivars), we have settled basically on three, 'Koto Buki', 'Yatsubusa' and 'Shun sho Matsu'. All of these have excellent dwarf characteristics but are quite different from each other. 'Koto Buki' is very dark green, very short needled, somewhat open and thick stemmed, a true dwarf. It is extremely slow growing for a Japanese black pine. 'Yatsubusa' (at least the one we have selected, there June be some trouble with the naming) is very much like the species except for shorter needles and very compact dense growth (short internodes) without a natural leader. This cultivar breaks buds everywhere. The growth rate is similar to the species, but the internodes are very much shorter, creating an incredibly compact plant. The other short needled cultivar, although not a true dwarf is 'Shun Sho Matsu'. It has incredibly short needles for a full size plant, ranging from about 1 to 1 1/2 inch. We will discontinue this cultivar when available stock is sold out. It's growth an needle habit is just too odd to make good bonsai except for the smallest trees.

Especially exciting are the cork bark Black Pines, Nishiki Matsu. These pines are very rare in this country, and only a few are in commercial production. Some of the ones we have collected are unnamed, that is, the cultivar name has been lost, or never established, and we are attempting to identify them. Others are known. One of the most outstanding plants so far is 'Brocade' (naming is uncertain and it appears to be identical to 'Hayabusa'). It is a fast corking cultivar as well as a yatsubusa type. This is very exciting since most of the Nishiki Matsu tend to have long whisker-y needles. Other cultivars include 'Kyokko', 'Kyokko Yatsubusa', 'Katsuga', 'Akame', 'Fuji', 'Mi Nishiki','Tai Hei', 'Gan Seki Sho' and 'Hayabusa'.

And lastly, anotherdevelopment is our success in growing the Nishiki types from cuttings. This completely avoids the severe problem of grafting cork bark types. Even the surface roots of cutting grown plants will be corked. Four year old cutting grown plants begin to swell at the crown, a very good sign for a good nebari and lower trunk. Thus far we have had success with 'Hachi Gen', 'Mi Nishiki', 'Obishash' and 'Akame'. Since the move to the new nursery, Brent has not been able to set up a suitable propagation room for pine cuttings, so it is possible that we will never again have a supply of these. Once they are gone, there are gone. For this reason, many are being held back for training as larger plants. Each year a few June become available as specimen trees.

The supply of cultivars is always limited. If you want one of these don't delay in ordering. They will sell out very quickly.

For more information see the articles Training Black Pine for Bonsai and Growing Black Pine for Bonsai.

7410 Pinus thunbergii seedlings. Our larger trees are seedling grown plants that have been continuously pruned to form bushy plants suitable for bonsai or shaped plants. Our larger plants will not look like the plants commonly found in nurseries. We begin pruning them at the seedling stage to encourage low branching. Unlike deciduous plants, pines do not easily break buds from older wood, so that if you do not have low branching from the beginning you will never have it. On our trees you will see many small branches very low on the trunk so that there are many choices for branches later on. But leave all the branches, especially those very low on the trunk for several years to increase the diameter of the trunk at the base and obtain good taper.
Specimen Plants

7412 Pinus thunbergii 'Akame' A cork bark type black pine with very long (five inches or more) whiskery needles. It is popular in the US and the trunk and branches cork up quite rapidly. The bark scales form the well known corky 'wings' in just a few years. It is a vigorous grower. This cultivar roots more easily from cuttings than others and we have both cutting grown and grafted plants. The pictured tree is a typical 2yr old one gallon low graft. Buds and branches start about 2 inches above the soil line. Cutting grown plants will already start to show swelling at the nebari. Some older cutting grown trees will be offered in our Specimen Catalog in the future. 3 year OLD ONE GALLON LOW GRAFTS $160

7420 Pinus thunbergii 'Ban Sho Ho' This is a shrubby form of very compact habit. The needles are medium to long at about three to four inches. It breaks back very nicely and will make excellent medium sized bonsai at about 18 inches to 2 feet. This cultivar is intermediate in size and habit between 'Yatsubusa' and the species (seedlings).
Specimen Plants only

7423 Pinus thunbergii 'Brocade' A dwarf cork barked cultivar (Nishiki Kuromatsu) with very dense foliage. It buds back incredibly, very similar to 'Yatsubusa' in this respect. Fantastic corky ridges begin forming very early and are quite pronounced even in a five year old graft. This will make one of the finest small Nishiki black pines. The needles will also reduce nicely, easily attaining about two inches or less in length. Very low grafts are a must for such a small pine, and ours are right on top of existing roots. This cultivar is very similar to, and June be the same as, 'Hayabusa'. At present we are keeping the two separate and offering both. Upper picture is '01 graft in a one gallon container. Lower picture is 3 year graft already showing corky bark. 3 year OLD ONE GALLON LOW GRAFTS $160 Sorry! Sold Out

7424 Pinus thunbergii 'Fuji' A cork bark type black pine. I have not had this pine long enough to adequately describe it. Steve's Pilacik's description from Japanese Black Pine is "A good corking variety with a little bit larger needle than usual. The grafted trees produce a thicker bark in a shorter period of time than the cuttings."
Specimen plants, please see specimen page

7425 Pinus thunbergii 'Gan Seki Sho' A cork bark type black pine that has a dwarf stature, but not as small as 'Brocade' or 'Hayabusa'. More vigorous than these two, and more upright, but still shrubby with a strong ability to break buds on older wood. Very long whiskery needles to six inches that can be reduced somewhat. A plate bark type similar to the two above but just a little slower in barking up.
ONE GALLON SIZE 3yr low graft $160

7426 Pinus thunbergii 'Four Sided'
A cork bark type black pine. We are offering this cultivar for the first time this year. It came from the garden of John and Sandy Planting of the Bay Area of California. Several of our cultivars came from their collection. Unfortunately, this one was unnamed, but we were told that it was the cork bark from Tosh Subamaru's collection. Since it displayed it's corky wings in quadrants around the trunk, Chuck Shane, who gathered the scions for us, named it 'Four Sided' for lack of a better name. Bark and growth is similar to 'Akame' but with needles that are not as long. The branches also have a slight tendency to droop. Low grafted trees.
3 year OLD ONE GALLON LOW GRAFTS $160
Specimen plants eventually

7428 Pinus thunbergii 'Hachi Gen' (Cork Bark Black Pine) We obtained this cultivar from Ken Sugimoto. As with many Nishiki cultivars, there is a problem with the naming. We are giving it the name supplied by Ken Sugimoto, but we have not been able to find it described in any text. It was reported to us that one Japanese company has it listed as 'Hachi Gen Kyokko', but it does not appear to be related to the well known cultivar 'Kyokko'. It has needles shorter than 'Kyokko' and it does not cork as fast.

It is a cork bark type black pine (Nishiki Kuro Matsu) that forms corky ridges rather slowly, fully developing in about twenty years. Grafts and cuttings develop bark that begins to 'crack' at about three years. The needles have good green color and are quite similar to species needles, not overly long (about three inches full size). It has white buds and is vigorous growing, breaking new buds quite easily. These are cutting grown plants, so there is no graft and the corking will extend down to the surface roots. All these plants have good low branching with the main leader still attached so you can decide how much low caliper you want. Pictured is a 4 year old cutting grown plant.See SPECIMEN CATALOG

7430 Pinus thunbergii 'Hayabusa'A dwarf cork barked cultivar (Nishiki Kuromatsu) with very dense foliage. See the description of 7423 'Brocade' above. Pictured is the 3 year graft. God willing and the creek don't rise, we will grafting these two cultivars this winter (2021). 3 year OLD ONE GALLON LOW GRAFTS $160 Sorry, Sold Out

7436 Pinus thunbergii 'Katsuga' A cork bark type black pine that we obtained from Steve Pilacik. I have not had this pine long enough to adequately describe it. Steve's description from Japanese Black Pine is "A good variety for bonsai. It trunks up well, has red buds and deep green needles that reduce well. It also ramifies nicely".
Available Again 2025

7441 Pinus thungbergii 'Koto Buki' This is one of the very few true dwarf Japanese black pine cultivars. The full size needles are just over one inch, and unlike 'Shun Sho' it slow growing with fairly short internodes. Another nice quality is that grafted plants tend to buttress right at the graft union, so a well executed low graft like ours will result in an excellent base for the smallest black pine bonsai possible. Expect these grafted trees to be small (3 to 6 inches tall) due to their dwarf nature and extremely slow growth rate.
Discontinued

7443 Pinus thunbergii 'Kyokko' A cork bark type black pine with long (four inches or more) needles. It is very popular in the US and the trunk and branches cork up nicely. It is a vigorous grower.
Specimen plants, please see specimen page

7444 Pinus thunbergii 'Kyokko Yatsubusa' A cork bark type black pine that was obtained from Steve Pilacik. It is reputedly a yatsubusa form of 'Kyokko', but I have yet to confirm this. Our young plants are beginning to cork irregularly along the trunk and branches at about four years.

ONE GALLON SIZE 3yr low graft $160

7461 Pinus thunbergii 'Shun Sho Matsu' A very short needled, white bud cultivar. It undoubtedly has the shortest needles of any larger Black Pine, ranging from about 1 to 1 1/2 inches. These short needles, fat buds, and long thick internodes give it a very odd appearance. However, I think that this has the potential of being a very nice small bonsai with hard pruning to keep it under control. This cultivar breaks buds on old wood very easily. It should trunk up very quickly.
Discontinued

7464 Pinus thunbergii 'Tai Hei' This is another cork bark type black pine with that we obtained from Steve Pilacik. I haven't had it long enough to adequately evaluate it. Steve describes it as "An excellent nishiki for small to medium sized bonsai. Truly a white budded gem".
Specimen plants eventually

7470 Pinus thunbergii 'Yatsubusa' A congested Japanese black pine with very short internodes and stark white fat buds. The foliage and bark are typical of the species, but it is the ability of this cultivar to break buds everywhere that make it so intriguing. Four or five year old grafts are so dense that you cannot see into them. It is a fast growing cultivar despite its short stature and will form a stout trunk as fast as the species. This is a superb choice for smaller pine bonsai, and our most popular Black Pine cultivar. Pictured is a two year graft. specimen trees

7475 Pinus thunbergii 'Two Ribbed' This is another cork bark type black pine with that we obtained from Sandy Planting.  "An excellent nishiki for small to medium sized bonsai. Truly a white budded gem".
ONE GALLON SIZE 3yr low graft $160

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