Montezuma's pine

Pinus montezumae is a beautiful long-needled pine from Mexico and Central America. Our tree began as a 5" seedling which was a gift from a friend and I grew it on a nursery bed until it was 5ft tall, when to my surprise it transplanted very well.

A few years ago, when the tree was maybe 18-20ft tall, we had a very cold spring gale which browned the foliage of most of the native trees along this coast. It also burned the top of this conifer so severely that it was subsequently damaged beyond repair and had to be cut off. So my beautiful tree is now a flat-topped bush and likely to remain so!