Years in the making, a tree goes through so many processes, sometimes many hands, and makes it to current day. This is a story of a Japanese Black Pine that took some some twists and turns. Once started and ground raised by a dear friend, Sandy V, who has now long since passed to the great bonsai garden in heaven, was put on sale in her failing health. My friend and I purchased the tree and it began its journey.

the image above was the wooly bear in 2017. Nice old barking had begun to develop and the foliage was very healthy and thick but it needed direction. My first task was to thin the mess out and cut it back so it could develop new branches.

Cleaned up, it was able to get more sun and develop buds. The tree orientation is very upright and I always considered that to be a weakness. We took the tree to our esteemed sensei Kathy Shaner and asked us to consider a very different orientation, tilting the trunk and bending some branches. That sure sounded fun.

The tree was repotted into a deeper pot and tilted at and angle. This allow me to bring down branches and create a more interesting tree. This was the 2019 view. A lot of structure wire was applied to the tree. The next two image so the progression to current day.

Here I am prepping a reddish clay pot from the Shaner collection because the tree was going to get a style upgrade and repotted.

Welcome to 2024 is a lovely show pot with branches set and cleaned. It is now ready for Spring growth.