Japanese White Pine 'Ryu-ju'

Japanese White Pine 'Ryu-ju' (Pinus parviflora 'Ryu-ju') is a collector's white pine with a shimmering silvery-blue crown. The needles are held in bundles of five, each carrying white stripes on its inner face, so in sunlight the tree looks dusted with silver. The branches are curved and the crown is dense and slightly irregular.

It belongs in a collector's garden, a Japanese corner or a rockery, where its natural outline can be shaped into niwaki - garden bonsai - with only a few cuts. Garden cultivars of the Japanese white pine are grafted and kept far more compact than the wild species, which reaches 9-15 m in cultivation.

Key characteristics:

• Hardiness: Hardy down to -29 °C (USDA zone 5).
• Light: Give it full sun; the species dislikes heat and humidity, so it is at its best in a cool summer.
• Soil: It likes moderately moist, well-drained soil, and will take a leaner one too as long as drainage is good.
• Watering: Water moderately and evenly - the one thing it dislikes is water standing around the roots.
• Care: Care is middling in effort: a healthy, well-tended specimen usually gives no serious trouble.
• Landscape use: The kind of specimen accent you plant it for: a Japanese garden, a rockery, a collector's bed or a large container.