Elfin, slender and a little gnarled - not unlike the bonsai he is delicately pruning - Fung Chee-ping worries that he is overseeing the dying days of a horticultural heritage.
The 73-year-old fears he will be the last guardian of a remarkable collection of more than 800 historic bonsai at the Ching Chung Taoist temple.
Since the death in 1999 of the Tuen Mun temple's former abbot, Hau Po-woon, who founded the collection, the task of keeping the plants in trim has fallen to Mr Fung, a friend for more than three decades.
Three days a week the retired photographer, one of the founders of the Hong Kong Bonsai Association in 1970, makes the trip from his Mei Foo flat to the temple to tend the bonsai, some more than 100 years old and many housed in priceless Qing and Ming dynasty pots acquired during the Cultural Revolution.
'These bonsai and antique pots are national treasures. Many people from Japan and Taiwan want to buy them. But how can we sell them? They are the result of the painstaking efforts of Abbot Hau,' said Mr Fung, who does not know what will become of the plants when he goes.
'When I was young, I studied Jie Zi Yuan Hua Pu, a book of model paintings, to get inspiration, talked to famous artists and practised by myself. Nowadays, few young men have a passion for bonsai. Basketball and music are more attractive to them.'
Mr Fung is anxious to pass on his knowledge, but so far there have been no takers. 'I have tried teaching people how to do it, but I can not find anyone patient enough. I tried to get the workers in the temple to trim the plants, but they flinch at the thought of it,' he said, his voice edged with despair.