My top-of-the-line last year pinuses are doing fine

My old mughos also adore this humid environment. I strongly believe that high humidity is a key for succesfull transplanting these old creatures from their natural habitat. So I am very happy when it rains a lot. Extremely free drainage helps roots in this rainy season and helps a lot the roots to cope with my agressive protocols of watering these old mountail trees for the first year after transplanting. I have installed automatic misters all over the garden, so in summer, they do the job of misting the trees few times a day regularily. That is especially important for newly transplanted conifers. For broadleaved trees is ok to mist them, but for conifers it is absolutely essential.
Because, the ability of broadleaved trees to absorb water through the leaves is less than 1%, and the ability of conifers to absorb water through the needles is 10% of needed water. That's mainly because of one small basal area on every needle that has no cutticle and has a strong absorbing capability.

Mugho Metuselah is sprouting very good.
Collection story: http://yamadoriarea.blogspot.com/2009/10/mugo-metuselah.html

and... http://yamadoriarea.blogspot.com/2009/10/metuselah-potted.html

Prometheus: http://sandevbonsai.blogspot.com/2009/09/mugo-constrictor.html

and Constrictor...they are all very healthy. They flower and sprout new shoots readily... http://sandevbonsai.blogspot.com/2009/09/mugo-constrictor.html