Tea Tree – Bent, Broken, and Rebuilt

Botanical Name: Leptospermum scoparium

Common Name: Tea Tree

Story of the Tree

This Tea Tree began its life as a bonsai in January 1989, when Mark harvested it from an air layer. The first nine years of its training were relatively quiet—until September 2008, when a group of rampaging kittens tore the tree’s No. 1 branch two-thirds of the way off.

“I screwed it back into the trunk, and it reattached.”

In 2011, seeking to correct a too-straight lower trunk, Mark used an advanced technique: he made two saw cuts halfway through the trunk, removed a pie-shaped wedge of wood, and bent the gap shut until the cambium layers met, forming a new, natural-looking bend.

Looking back at a photo from July 1999, Mark noticed that too much bare wood had developed on the inner low branches. But even that was addressed—with thread grafts, he successfully filled the space back in.

Through mishaps, bold moves, and careful corrections, this tree has become a story of persistence, problem-solving, and slow beauty built over decades.

Exhibited by: Mark