Talk about mega-newbie question! ..... Does anyone have any suggestion on good places to find pure Japanese Black Pine species(and Japanese Red Pines) online for purchase? hey..WELCOME first.. be prepared to be enabled ... lol second.. let get you up to speed on using latin names .... Japanese Red Pine (Pinus densiflora) .. densiflora is about as common as they come.. if you cant find good CULTIVARS for sale .... mail order.. just give up now ... lol... do you know the difference between as species and a cultivar .... ?? generally.. species are otherwise know as forest trees.. and unless you have a couple hundred acres.. you dont really want them in your garden ... what you should be looking for.. is a Cultivated Variety [aka CultiVar] chosen for its size... shape.. color.. texture.. making it somehow unique to the species ... BTW.. do you know what 'Oculis-draconis' means? ... it will define why this one was chosen for propagation??? next.. make plans to remove all your grass ... in the next few decades... lol ... there is so much we can teach you.. if you wish to hang around ... an easy way to start.. is to read thru the 60 odd pages of posts.. and then zero in on specific questions for new posts ... all pix can be reloaded if you want to see them... soooo ... do you really want a bunch of extremely large forest trees.. or are you looking for cultivars.. and once you answer that question.. are you looking for color.. size.. texture.. etc ... here is a link to a primer on conifers ... pay special attention to the section on Conifer Sizes.. what i call ANNUAL GROWTH RATE ... that is what defines mini.. dwarf.. intermediate.. and large plants .... [and has been covered in hundreds of posts] .. but if you have specific ???'s.. feel free.. we can cover it again ...: http://www.conifersociety.org/cs2/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=3 how about a pic or two of your potential garden space ..... in a new post.. and we can brainstorm that for you also ... welcome.. and good luck ken Here is a link that might be useful: vast potential ....

Dave, made out a photo time-lapse for you. My specimen gets about 10 hours of direct sun in Summer. Not quite 100%, but a LOT of sun, 3/4's for sure. Perhaps there are subtle differences in growth rates per area but everything I've heard is that most pines grow faster here not slower. Miclino, I haven't done a thing to my 'Thunderhead' except an occasional needle shake out. Eneref, my 'Knaptonensis' doesn't seem to burn to much ever but this specimen is somewhat protected even in Winter by two large evergreens. That said, we just don't see much sun in Winter. Those unfamiliar with it would be shocked but the true rains of the Pacific Northwest come in late Autumn/Winter. We MIGHT have 2-3 days where it's mostly sunny in the entire 4-5 month span. It's ugly. Thanks for the comments folks, I'll keep sharing these photos over the years, even if my displeasure with the advertisement on GW has hit it's peak. -Will

Thanks. Yes, Blonde is used in the highest part of the trey, the lower part is Ivoire. I thought they'd be darker than they are, so I need to go further down the strip to get a GOLD on the ceiling. The trim color is a creamy white: SW Dover White. My other "color" in the house is a pumpkin-y color called Basque Brown (old Duron color). None of my pics of it show it well, so I didn't post it. I'll try again under different lighting conditions. These colors: eggplant, earthy green, and "pumpkin" were all accent colors in my last house with was entirely a soft gray. This time we decided to use the Blonde as the over-all color and then paint individual rooms too (we were too afraid of multi-colors in the last house...then I found this forum). I'd like the eggplant to be a bit darker, too, but we were also afraid the Walnut wouldn't show up as well when we were first picking colors. There's someone on the forum who painted a room (or wall; I think in the basement) in the next color down from Soulmate and posted a pic of it.

Some pics of DS's room (pardon the tween boy mess - I managed to avoid taking pics of the unmade bed). Horizon paint color - I forgot, his trim isn't stained, just beeswax and boiled linseed oil but it's somewhere b/t a "natural" pine and honey. Bunk beds (ignore the box spring underside) in sunlight bookcase - maybe darker pine than bed plus a shadow but I did use flash Desk cubby (dark) and edge of closet trim (beeswax) - I think the flash washed out the side of the closet a little though And, what you were waiting for - he has an oak dresser! This is next to a window, so the paint is under an east-facing window, no light but flash. Finally, here's BM Light Pewter with no stain, poly-only baseboard in bathroom. The colors are pretty true in this pic (a little bit of White Satin showing around the corner to the tub).