A dwarf JWP

[William N. Valavanis]

Myojo Japanese five-needle pine is a dwarf yatsubusa cultivar of Pinus parviflora.

I believe it was introduced to the Japanese bonsai world when the "Yatsubusa Boom" was at its highest point around 1970-1980s, last century. Motosuke Hamano of Toju-en Bonsai Garden in Omiya Bonsai Village introduced this cultivar along with numerous others. He was also Masahiko Kimura and Shiji Suzuki's teacher.

 

[quietobserver]

How "long"are the needles on that little dude Adair?

 

[Txhorticulture]

Not just dwarf... miniature. Almost all miniature conifers are from witches brooms. Excellent

 

[Adair M]

They're about 1/2 to 3/4 inch

Tight, tight bundles. Extremely short internodes.

 

[Adair M]

An update:

 

[JudyB]

That is adorable. And well built all at the same time. Nice.

 

[Adair M]

That is adorable. And well built all at the same time. Nice.

It finally got big enough to style.

 

[Giga]

Cute and nice trunk

 

[discusmike]

Very nice!

 

[discusmike]

And most important,healthy!!

 

[Adair M]

Cute and nice trunk

It is... Horrors!!! a graft onto JBP.

A seedling cutting JBP.

Up close, you can tell it's a graft. But you have to look for it. One of the keys to getting a smooth transition from stock to scion is to not force the growth. Now, this is a slow growing cultivar, and they've always been grown in bonsai pots, so the foliage growth has been somewhat contained. Which makes the trunk, even with the graft union, stay in proportion.

 

[Adair M]

This little tree's grandmother is at Grove Way Bonsai in Hayward. A scion from Johnny Uchida's tree was grafted onto JBP. And a scion from THAT tree was grafted by Boon onto JBP to create this little tree.

I happened to be a Grove Way one time and saw the original tree, which I believe was imported from Japan, and noticed that the foliage was the same as mine. Boon told me the history of the scions. Pretty cool.