Yew Two

[Watto]

Some years ago I acquired two largish Yew's (Taxus baccata) and I wrote a story about the first one years ago, but this is the second one. I think, but not sure, that this is commonly called an Irish Yew and is generally "candle flame" shaped.
I mucked around with it for a while but I lacked the skill and inclination to make anything out of it. Fortunately in November 2019 I had the opportunity to speak with Peter Warren about this tree and in the five minutes we had he gave me lots of advice and ideas to make this a real bonsai.
This is not a tutorial on how to train Yew's but is what I remember Perter telling me. Before I get to the training aspects some history on this tree.

[Watto]

Yew as bonsai are rarely seen in Australia but are widely grown in Japan and Europe so hopefully I can make this look reasonable and start the Aussie Yew team?
Peters initial advice was to "stretch" it out so as to take away the cylindrical look and so I placed the pot in a wooden box and attached to the box a number of guy wires to stretch out and bring down most of the branches. Some heavy duty copper wire was used and that stayed on for over 12 months

[Watto]

In December 2020 I removed the wires and began the styling process with the first step being to create some jin and shari. Dead wood on Yew's is very common and occurs naturally in the wild.
The next step will happen in a week or so and I hope to able to take you through the journey, that's if I don't forget to update.

[Daluke]

Looks good.

I’ve named him Bono.

[Watto]

Ha ha ha, Daluke I love it.
One of the things I want to occur now is to reduce the width of the tree, and to do that I need more foliage on the interior of the branches. The method Peter suggested was to let the foliage grow without trimming from winter until late December early January. You will notice that new foliage is a yellow colour (that really worried me when I first saw it, but thankfully that is normal) and around that time it will become green, and when its green its time to commence the process.
Cut the new growth back to 3 or 4 sets of needles and then remove all the older needles along the length of the branch. The branch looks naked but I was assured new buds will pop if the tree is healthy and it will pop buds along the entire length of the branch. Very important to keep these well fertilized.

[Watto]

I have now completed the next phase and the tree looks very bare. I may not have been quite as clear as I should have been in my last post, when I said cut back the new growth to 2 or 3 pairs of leaves, the new growth I was referring to was this seasons spring growth. Glad I cleared that up.
You don't prune weaker areas or areas where you want more branch thickness or more length in the branches,
The result of this action should be that through the remaining part of summer the tree should produce new shoots in response to the cut back. This new growth will be less vigorous than the spring growth but will help build density and ramification along each branch.
I won't know the results until May but I have all my fingers crossed.

[Watto]

Its always a bit nerve racking when you try a technique that is new to you but it appears that the advice given by Peter Warren was spot on. So far there are plenty of new shoots starting and even more buds that will pop in a few weeks.
So I still have my fingers crossed but it is looking promising.

[Watto]

Its been nearly a year and the tree has budded along the branches, shown new season yellow growth that has now turned green so in the next few days the next part of the process will take place.

[Grant Bowie]

Yew,ve done it again. Well done and certainly not the easiest material, but what a stellar start.

Grant

[Watto]

Thanks Grant, time for the trim and needle pulling. Always a nervous time for me but it did work last year so its onwards and upwards.
It does look quite naked now, the branches I mean but that allows the wiring to be done with out any interference from foliage, and the wiring will start tomorrow.

[Watto]

I really must move this to a suitable spot so you can better see the work, but it is heavy and I am getting older. I promise after the wiring I will take a proper photo.
In the mean time, a close up of one branch and you can see the difference between pre and post trimming.

[Watto]

I did move it and here are a couple of photos before wiring commenced.
The deadwood is integral to this tree but shouldn't dominate so I am striving to achieve that.

[Rory]

Very nice Watto. Thats going to be a great tree in the many years to come.
Will be nice to watch this progression.

[Watto]

Thanks Rory.
Wiring is done and branches put in place. Some branches need to develop more and some may get a bigger trim or maybe even removal next styling but the overall shape is now taking place.
The idea is to have a few "white pinnacles" emerging from the green mound but that is some time off still. It is interesting that the white colour of the wood is natural (I haven't used lime sulphur or any other preservative - yet) and now, this time of the year, the green foliage is a very deep green. In ten years time if I'm going to show this spring would be a bad time so I'll be looking for either a January show or an August show - if some organisation would arrange that I would appreciate it.
The next work on the foliage will be this time next year, but I do intend to repot and straighten the planting position before then. For now its just water and fertilizer.