This lovely Bonsai tree was potted back in 1625, just 5 years after the Pilgrims came to America. It has been pruned and kept alive all that time. It is a Japanese White Pine, Pinus parviflora 'Miyajima'. I cannot imagine what it would take for all those generations of gardeners to keep this plant alive and well. It also survived the Atomic Bomb attack in 1945 in Hiroshima. Here is the explanation from an article on PBS, 3 August 2013 entitled, "Centuries-old bonsai that survived atomic bomb gets honored 70 years later."
The Washington Post reported that the tree was originally donated to the Arboretum by a bonsai master named Masaru Yamaki. It was part of a gift of 53 trees given to the Arboretum’s National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in honor of the U.S. bicentennial. No mention was made of the tree’s history, and it wasn’t until the brothers showed up that the tree’s incredible story was even known. The tree’s history will be honored on Thursday, the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.
The tree was originally located in a walled nursery belonging to Yamaki that was less than two miles from Hiroshima. This distance, however, was just far enough away to shield it from the blast. Jack Sustic, curator of the Bonsai and Penjing Museum, told the Post that the tree must have been against a wall where it was shielded from the blast. Photographs taken at the Yamaki Nursery just after the bombing show the pine standing in its pot, unharmed.
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