A new yew

[craigw60]

An old bonsai friend once told me "you need to leave some room on your benches for the good things your going to get". This was very good advice. Its not a very common occurrence for me to take on a new project but I succumbed to this yew.
There is a garden I work in up the road which was full of self sown yew. Over the years I have dug lots of them mostly to use as clipped shrubs in the garden which is how this one started but it seems to have developed potential beyond a garden plant so it was dug up over the weekend. Despite its lack of great taper I think it has loads of potential.
Craigw

[MattA]

The taper is subtle & graceful, something missing in alot of modern trees, great potential & in your hands will be a stunner one day

[lackhand]

I think the taper looks great. Subtle, and not a sumo tree, but I like it. Very natural looking, and not having trunk chops is a major plus in my opinion. Not that they're all bad, they're just so common that it's attention grabbing when you see a tree without. Should be a really nice one to work with.

[Watto]

Firstly thankyou for posting as the yew is not that common in Aus for bonsai, and I don't know why. If I could ask a favour, would you please keep us up-dated on its progress as I think it has much potential, and all us onlookers may learn a heap?

[craigw60]

Matt, thanks for that
Karl, I will shorten the trunk a bit. I have always been a bit of a proponent of trunk chopping, I think sometimes beginners don't understand the time it takes to repair that kind of scaring. One of the most important skills in bonsai is to look into the future and be able to see the results of your work in 10 or 15 years time.
Watto I will keep you updated on this one. Yew are not commonly found in australian gardens I think they really prefer a cooler climate than most of us can offer. Over the years I have potted lots of them for sale in the nursery and have found them to be very temperamental in pots, alive one day dead the next. This may be the reason they are not readily available in nurseries.
Craigw

[Kyushu Danji]

Hello Craig,

I have recently visited a nursery selling some yew that have a similar trunk width as yours above selling for $69.00. If one were to have some potential as bonsai, is this too much to pay for a yew of that size, considering you will most likely have to trunk chop quite a way down?

Interested in seeing the development of this one, thanks for sharing.

James

[craigw60]

Hi James, given these are very slow growing plants I would think thats a pretty reasonable price. Just make sure they are taxus and not cephalotaxus which are more commonly seen in nurseries.
Craigw

[Kyushu Danji]

Hi James, given these are very slow growing plants I would think thats a pretty reasonable price. Just make sure they are taxus and not cephalotaxus which are more commonly seen in nurseries.
Craigw

Hello Craig,

Thanks for the reply. I believe stock they are selling is Taxus Cuspidata, and was previously priced at around $110 but it seems no one bought them at that price. The more pressing issue now is whether they have any stock at all that would lend itself to bonsai - they all seem to have reasonable good nebari, but 5cm up and it is just dense vertical shoots! This stock would certainly be needing a lot of work, and I wonder if it is worth the effort considering it would need to be cut back severely and the branches potentially wired down. Yours looks like a different type of Yew. Do you know what variety it is?

James

[craigw60]

James, I think mine is taxus baccata, the original plants were planted in the 1920s. Most of the yew seen in Japan and europe are collected and carved but I think they would make fantastic formal upright trees with lots of branches and trained into a perfect triangle
Craigw

[Kyushu Danji]

Thanks once again Craig for your knowledge and advice, and sorry for hijacking your thread somewhat.
I think I will have to take the plunge and see what I can do with this species, if I can find some suitable stock.

Happy easter,

James

[craigw60]

Hi James I'm not the least worried by your questions
I think with yew good drainage is the key, I have transplanted some quite large ones into my garden up to 2m in height the only one I lost was planted in a damp spot whereas the trees planted in drier areas have thrived, so use a very open potting mix
Craigw

[Mojo Moyogi]

Hi James, Japanese Yew - Taxus cuspidata make wonderful bonsai:
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Taxu ... 00&bih=768

Cheers,
Mojo

[Kyushu Danji]

Mojo and Craig,

Do you two own shares in japanese yew? Lot's of encouragement to try this species out

Craig - I have also read somewhere that yew can tolerate plenty of shade, but hate to have wet feet for too long. Is this one of the reasons why they tend to fail in garden nurseries? Or are they also temperamental about repotting? I am interested in what sort of soil mix have you used.

Also has your taxus fruited for you yet and do you consider this to be a feature in its future years as bonsai? Would love to hear some of your ideas and plans for the next few years!

James

[craigw60]

James I have never had a problem transplanting or repotting yew they have a very fibrous root system, I think the issue with my nursery stock is probably over watering.
The garden I collected them from is totally over crowded with big mature trees and the yew seem to flourish in really dark dry shade but I think as a bonsai some sun would be better although they might need protection from the really hot weather.
Craigw