Pinus Nigra Austriaca

[alpineart]

This has been under my watchful eye for several years .I did chop the tops way back then and basically this is what was produced . It had actually fell over down a road batter and has regrown vertically

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. Make for a nice mountain toppled tree cascade if it survives or a raft style , food for thought for the future .

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Anyway its on the bench for retirement exercise.

Cheers Alpineart

[MoGanic]

Hey there,

Bit of creativity, this tree could be excellent in the future.

Always finding interesting things you are Alpine! Starting to think you have some kind of tree genie haha.

-MO

[kcpoole]

Nice find
some creativity will see this one into a very nice tree methinks!

Ken

[alpineart]

Hi Guys , it should make for a different challenge . I liked the way it was cascading down it the plantation , it looked very natural after a landslide .

Cheers Alpine

[MoGanic]

I'm hoping you have some pics before you collected it?

-Mo

[alpineart]

Hi Mo , basically the first pic is how it was growing for the last few years . I didn't get a pic as it was a spur of the moment collection , the road gangs have moved in to clear cut the roadside growth off . Massive waste of some fantastic stock but i haven't been capable of collecting a great deal this season .

Cheers Alpine

[Hackimoto]

Do you have this species growing in plantations down your way Alpine?

[Andrew Legg]

It'll make a cool walking stick too alpine!

Interesting tree . . . I like these thought provoking ones. I don't think it has enough branching to do a raft does it? I'll be very interested to see where this one goes. That straight section is gonna be a bugger to design around!

Cheers,

Andrew

[alpineart]

Do you have this species growing in plantations down your way Alpine?

Hi Hackimoto , these are some of the last self sown wildlings from the test plots planted in the 1920' . They are sprayed or slayed every year however 1-2 test lot remain , i only know the location of one of the plots . To my knowledge i'm the only lucky bugger with full permission to collect these and that's been the case for the last 12 years . Its not what you know its who you know . There was about 27 different softwood species from the Northern hemisphere planted around here in the 1920-1922 period by the grandfather of an old friend whom passed away several years ago .He gave me the locations with strict instructions not to let the locations become common knowledge but if possible try to save the species .Most of them have been clear felled and sprayed or wiped out by the bushfires . He was a keen bushy and loved my so called Bonsai and for a golden oldie the of the greatest men i have ever had the pleasure to know for the last 10 years of his life .His history help build Myrtleford and surrounding districts. A bunger Savage he used to call himself .Half Irish and half Mad .

Cheers Alpine

[Hackimoto]

Thanks Alpine, You are very fortunate to have access to such a great species. Lately I have been doing a bit of experimentation with grafting some of the small needled species onto the local slash pine (Elliotii) which is plentiful around here. It might be a way of being able to grow cooler species in the sub-tropics. Time will tell.

[MoGanic]

Hack, you sir... are a Bonscientist.

-Mo

[alpineart]

Hi Andrew , mate i did answer tour question last night and i must have shot of into cyberspace . Its an interesting trunk in that the deadwood begins between each branch/trunk ,The tree has a live vein underneath and at the back where the dozer dodin't scrape the bark off . I liked the fallen cascade look when i first spotted it , only need a mountain rock about 1.5m high to truly show off it natural collected state . I could thread graft a few more trunks onto this trunk or create another twin to this one . Plenty of options if it survives .

Cheers Alpine