In early Spring of 2000, a landscape company along the main highway to my house had some trees and shrubs that caught my eye. I stopped in there and it so happen that the owner was around. I asked if he was selling any of his plants and he hesitantly said yes. After looking around I found a twisty and skinny shore pine that was interesting and thought it had potential for bonsai. After negotiating with the owner, I paid $50 for the tree. He also told me that the tree was collected from Oregon. I wrote my notes on the back of the photo I took before working on this tree. I repotted this tree in the same spring. In the next 2 years following, the tree responded very well. I left as many roots as possible to this tree during the first repotting because I felt it was still very delicate. The soil I used during that time was red lava and bark/compost mix. The subsequent repotting, the tree was gradually repotted in 1/3 akadama, l1/3 ava, 1/3 pumice, with a small amount of charcoal and decomposed granite.
In 2003 I brought this tree to Boon Manakitivipart’s study group. Boon help me refine the stance and front of this tree. This tree continues to mature beautifully and it’s one my favorite trees.
This tree is in the literati or bunjin style. A style very well suited for this tree as it evokes a sparsely and contorted tree up in the mountains.
The last rewiring of this tree was in Dec 2014. From the last photo I noticed how the foliage of this tree is getting out of proportion to the trunk and to the style of bunjin. I plan to reduce or compact the top even further. Perhaps even create a jin to show struggle.
