I collected this Limber Pine with Steve Varland and Dan Wiederrecht about a decade ago. It looked younger than the delicious, half-deadwood trees on the slopes nearby. Then a couple years ago bark started to peel in the front and—delight of delights—the whole front had died, leaving a swath of shari.
Last week we potted this tree for the first time. In the Seasonal class we failed to find a suitable pot, so it went on a slab.
For years I’ve made slab plantings with juicy, organic root masses. I’ve wanted to try a root mass that suggested the shape and volume of a typical pot, so here’s our effort at that. A block of roots and soil that hints at a harder material.
Here’s the Limber Pine being prepared for its slab adventure.
Our Corian slab ready for the rootball, cut to a soft rectangle. The bottom has grooves cut between the wiring holes so it sits flat. No need for drainage holes as the water will just go sideways.
The root ball prepared with stout bamboo stakes in four corners to be used as tie-downs.
Gelatinous cooked corn starch helps firm up our muck. We use 1/3 corn starch, 1/3 long-fibered (unshredded) orchid moss, and 1/3 akadama dust. Sometimes more corn starch is needed for a sticky mass that doesn’t crack when you squish it.
Mixing the muck.
Ted and Chad work the ball. Chad’s hat is clever: bonsai overwork.
The bottom has a muck wall about 1” thick. Above that is the root mass where we spread on a watered-down muck like a slurry over the cut ends of the fine roots.
The finished slab planting. A few lichens adorn it to jumpstart the colonization of the new surface. Holes were punched in the bottom edge so when it’s watered, we don’t get a blowout of the muck wall from a gallon of water seeking escape. Had that once. Moss and lichen will cover the holes in a year or two, but once roots grow into the muck the protective job of those holes is finished.
The slope to the right has no muck on top, just soil with sphagnum over it for better water penetration.
Here’s the finished piece. It’s not like a pot. But it has some clean lines and a pot-like mass. The slopes might suggest movement and direction with a flow to the right.
Inspiration? I didn’t notice the similarity of this DeWalt battery pack until several days later. Hard to claim inspiration if you don’t remember seeing it, though the mind is a funny thing.
For the backstory on this tree, here is the Limber Pine’s First Styling.
Then Maciek Adwent helped rework the design in this video in 2024: