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The landscape is still brown, and nighttime temperatures continue to dip below freezing, but I expect both of these to change very soon. That means it’s a good time to collect pines. The buds are starting to swell and extend, just a bit, which means the roots are starting to grow too.

I am after just one smallish tree today, so I don’t need a very extensive tool kit. Pictured above is all I will need. Since this is a “short range” collection (by which I mean it won’t take long to get it back to the house once out of the ground) I will just place the root ball in a good ol’ IKEA bag to carry back. Concave cutters and loppers will take care of small and big cuts I need to make on site, and I use the hook to loosen soil and comb out roots as I go. Gloves and my trusty old garden spade round out the set.

No dig-in-process photos for you today, but I hope you can see in the shadowy pic above why I chose this particular tree. It branches in many directions and shows a lot of strength. What that means to me is there will be choices when it comes time to style this tree, and it won’t be boring. Look below, and I think you will also see some promise in the movement of the trunk.

I was hoping for a stronger nebari, but this is a weakness of the Virginia pines I have collected. Hopefully, in time, the roots will gain strength and be able to present a nice anchoring image in the pot.

You can see I have it in a wooden box where it will recover for the next couple of years before I attempt to style it. I plan to protect it from the freezing temperatures we expect over the next couple of nights to avoid adding insult to injury. So that’s the plan — Keep it safe, and get it healthy!