English Yew - Taxus Baccata 'Aurea'

[Patmet]

I aquired this English Yew to take to a workshop in May 2023. Grown by a good friend, he said it had been growing for around 20 years. Makes sense being a slow growing yew. I thought it was a standard english yew at first, but seeing this seasons yellow new growth I've identified it as the 'aurea' variety.

I took it to a national convention workshop in Perth, in May 2023 where I did the first styling with Masayuki Fujikawa.

I was told it hadn't been repotted for a long time, so I did a repot in spring into a shallower terracotta pot, and my bonsai substrate. It has a decent nebari which I have buried a bit at this stage.

The wire was starting to bite in pretty hard now, January 2024, so I have removed all of that minus the guy wires. I let the wire bite in a bit more than usual as I have heard that the branches are quite springy on yews and don't hold easily. I also did a little tidy underneath branches and removed some clutter. I plan to work it again in autumn.

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As I got it May '23

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Tidy up of dead/unusable branches before taking to workshop.

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Workshop results May '23

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Spring 2023 after repot and pushing growth.

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Jan '24 before wire removal and tidy.

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After.

[Promethius]

Lovely tree, Pat. One to watch, as many of yours are. Thanks for sharing!

Andy

[Patmet]

Cleaned out and fully wired this over the weekend. It's at the stage now where I'm starting to work on the secondary branches, and slowly getting more branches in the crown.

I also started a shari on the front and back of the lower trunk. Very thin to start off nice and slow. I think it will add interest and character to the trunk. From my research on the species it is characteristic to have deadwood on the trunk in old specimens.

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