This tree was collected at my mother’s property in North Waikato when I first arrived back into New Zealand in March 2020. It was a dead straight stick about 5ft tall and as thick as my thumb, that I only looked twice at because it had nice bark. This told me the tree was significantly older than the size of the tree would let on. The tree was growing in the decaying stump of one of it’s uncles, so had somewhat naturally contained it’s own root system, leading to the natural ‘dwarfing’. This is the original genetic line of Pinus radiata not commonly seen in New Zealand anymore, as they have been mostly replaced with select forestry varieties.

I built the tree from one lower branch and a slightly higher right angled bar branch, one moved up to become the apex and one moved down for a back branch.

I decided against using the remainder of the tree as deadwood for two reasons:

1. I don’t really the the generic ‘lightning strike’ bit of deadwood seen sticking out the top of a lot of conifers. It’s a lazy way to reduce the height of a tree.

2. Leaving the deadwood there would create a pretty ugly ‘knuckle’ with two areas of high sap flow next to it.

The top of the tree was removed with a flush cut, and has now calloused and healed over nicely, creating a smooth and realistic transition to the branch positioned to be come the new leader.

See some images below of the gradual transition from stick to bonsai over the span of four years.