Dragon’s Eye Pine

A cultivar of the Japanese Red Pine, this irregularly structured tree makes a wonderful specimen, especially when grown against a darker backdrop of conifers or a large blank wall of a house.  This two-needle pine has buttery yellow banding on each needle, giving the candles a striped appearance, which along with their darker green eye is most dramatic when viewed from above.  In addition to it’s exciting coloration, Dragon’s Eye Pine develops handsomely fissured red-grey bark and a broad, asymmetrical form with age.  It’s 2″ long, oval shaped cones are a soft blue green hue and are clustered at the base of the current year’s candles, enhancing it’s charm.  Unlike most other pines, this specimen will be quite at home in partial shade conditions, illuminating darker spaces with it’s golden new growth, although it will also happily tolerate full sun with regular irrigation and rich, but well draining soil.  It is slower growing, about 6 inches a year, and about half the size of the species, ultimately reaching 20-30 feet tall and 15-20 feet wide.  That being said, one could easily keep this unique tree smaller with yearly pruning in the dormant season, which would also encourage bushier candle growth the following spring and summer, accentuating it’s most alluring feature