Pinus parviflora 'Pentaphylla'Japanese white pine
A five-needle pine with an irregular, sculptural silhouette, tiered branches and short blue-green foliage. It is one of the classic species of the Japanese garden and of niwaki, planted as a single specimen where the form of the trunk and branches is the composition itself.
- Short needles in bundles of five, blue-green with silvery faces
- Tiered branches that make the tree a living sculpture
- Specimens trained over years, ready to be the centrepiece of a garden
About this cultivar
Pinus parviflora 'Pentaphylla' is a selection of the Japanese white pine, slow-growing and of open habit, which in a garden reaches around 5 to 8 metres and in trained specimens stays well below that. The needles, gathered in bundles of five, are short, slightly twisted and blue-green with silvery faces.
The branching in horizontal tiers is its signature. In trained specimens, each tier has been shaped over years by bud pruning and candle pinching, which gives the trunk and branches the look of a mature tree at garden scale.
It needs full sun and well-drained soil, preferably slightly acidic, and tolerates waterlogging poorly. Once established, maintenance comes down to the annual pinching of the candles in spring to keep the form.
Advice on this species
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