diff --git a/gerrychain/proposals/tree_proposals.py b/gerrychain/proposals/tree_proposals.py
index fe4525fe..bba9e3ff 100644
--- a/gerrychain/proposals/tree_proposals.py
+++ b/gerrychain/proposals/tree_proposals.py
@@ -45,16 +45,17 @@ def recom(
         partition.parts[parts_to_merge[0]] | partition.parts[parts_to_merge[1]]
     )
 
-    flips = recursive_tree_part(
+    flips_left, flips_right = bipartition_tree_retworkx(
         subgraph,
-        parts_to_merge,
         pop_col=pop_col,
         pop_target=pop_target,
         epsilon=epsilon,
         node_repeats=node_repeats,
-        method=method,
     )
 
+    flips = {node: parts_to_merge[0] for node in flips_left}
+    flips |= {node: parts_to_merge[1] for node in flips_right}
+
     return partition.flip(flips)
 
 
diff --git a/gerrychain/tree.py b/gerrychain/tree.py
index 519b1d77..863cc1e9 100644
--- a/gerrychain/tree.py
+++ b/gerrychain/tree.py
@@ -182,8 +182,9 @@ def bipartition_tree_retworkx(
 ):
     pops = graph.pygraph_pop_lookup(pop_col)
 
-    balanced_nodes = retworkx.bipartition_tree(graph.pygraph, lambda x: random.random(), pops, pop_target, epsilon)
-    return {graph.retworkx_networkx_mapping[x] for x in choice(balanced_nodes)[1]}
+    balanced_node_choices = retworkx.bipartition_tree(graph.pygraph, lambda x: random.random(), pops, float(pop_target), float(epsilon))
+    balanced_nodes = {graph.retworkx_networkx_mapping[x] for x in choice(balanced_node_choices)[1]}
+    return (balanced_nodes, graph.node_indicies - balanced_nodes)
 
 
 def bipartition_tree(