Big Taxus

[BobbyLane]

pretty amazing transformation, considering the starting material. sometimes its hard to see anything in raw material, but when you see what others do, things can become clearer.
multiple straight trunks, but i guess its the movement which made this possible, still inspiring tho. the deadwood work has also completely transformed the material...

 

[Rivian]

Have you found you can create live veins at all? I mean one with some movement, not straight to the roots. It would go against current major sap flow Im sure. Dont know if the tree could adapt or it just ends in death of everything above. I heard pines and junipers "have the ability to transfer sap sideways" in this context, but yews, no idea

 

[BobbyLane]

Have you found you can create live veins at all? I mean one with some movement, not straight to the roots. It would go against current major sap flow Im sure. Dont know if the tree could adapt or it just ends in death of everything above. I heard pines and junipers "have the ability to transfer sap sideways" in this context, but yews, no idea

Not really gone deep into that no, I just go by feel and I look closely at the position of roots and whats above them, if im making cuts or doing deadwood ill look for contours and ridges on the trunk where I feel there might be a lot of sap flow and be mindful of that. I know Will baddely talks about following the grain a lot, so I try to do that

 

[Rivian]

I have 2 ideas in this regard. Either fuse a young branch onto the bark and let it become the twisted section of the live vein
Or if you create a shari in the form of a slanted eye but vertically, and then widen it over some time so the flow can adapt a bit at a time

If it doesnt work the direct way

 

[leatherback]

Have you found you can create live veins at all?

yes one can

 

[Rivian]

The first taxus got stuck in the stage of flushing out it was in when I repotted. It would be good if it can finish or even harden the shoots as they are. I will use some rhizotonic and see if that helps

 

[BobbyLane]

I doubt it will help, just means more watering at a time of year when it should be kept dry. been there done that,, killed many.

 

[Rivian]

Both of these taxus survived and I found another one just as big, barerooted on a trashpile. It too survived.
All pushing buds now
About the rhizotonic, I didnt notice any effect
The shoots did harden in the early stages and now have new shoots extending from them

Think Im gonna fertilize them heavily now

 

[Jcmmaple]

Awesome material, I wanted to try some yews but I read they were poisonous.

 

[leatherback]

Awesome material, I wanted to try some yews but I read they were poisonous.

Just do not eat them, wash your hands after working and you will probably be fine.
I do get a little dizzy if I work a whole day on my yews, especially when pulling the leaves.

 

[Rivian]

Drastic repot done, 90% roots removed, no more clay soil, lowered nebari, same pot, no foliage cut, placed in morning sun.
Should be clear if it survives by July

 

[circledisk]

Just do not eat them, wash your hands after working and you will probably be fine.
I do get a little dizzy if I work a whole day on my yews, especially when pulling the leaves.

was just working on a yew last night and felt a bit nausous going to bed...no wonder, I forgot to wash my hands right after working!

 

[Rivian]

Peter-chan to Jelle: These go for 2-5K
Me: I should go water my yew.

 

[Meeyageesun]

This yew was dug from a hedge in May 2020. There were 3 others but I did not have the option of taking care of them and they perished in a field.
It was originally growing in clay, then when I got it it went into the ground in my garden. I put black flower soil around the root(stump)s.
As you can see the branches died back some. I removed bark from dead parts to get a better feel of whats going on.
First time Im dealing with live-veins.
A couple months ago I put it into this pot, mostly in flower soil cause thats what I had lying around. In hindsight I would choose better draining mix.
Cuts that were made:
-initial with chainsaw, turning it from hedge to a plant you have a chance transporting
-selected obviously bad branches and removed them
-where several twigs came from the same place, removed all but one

The roots underneath are the size of the branches but closer together and have highly compacted clay soil in between. Its bloody heavy.

View attachment 392949

Best main trunk:
View attachment 392950
Other main trunk:
View attachment 392951
Branches on soil level are rooted and alive:
View attachment 392952
View attachment 392953
View attachment 392954
Probably the only white root ive ever seen on this tree:
View attachment 392955

Ive never seen the real nebari because I cant afford to cut away any fine surface roots.

Ill probably repot again next year into inorganic soil to avoid grubs and have healthier roots.

The reason I havent done real wiring is because I dont know what exactly Ill use as primary structure

I really think your taxus has a ton of potential. So many options for sure. I recently was able to dig up two weeping taxus myself, btw ,my first time working with the taxus. Both were thriving in gritty clay with minimal organic matter , pretty dry in my opinion , so I potted them in a better version of what it was growing in. It’s been probably 8 months since I dug them up and everything seems ok, no dieback so far.

 

[palafr01]

Update?

 

[Rivian]

I let it grow freely for a while. Quite a few twigs are now a meter long, and I kept all that when repotting. Had tons of healthy, white roots. Now its in a mica drum pot, probably not suitable as final pot but fine for the time being and a good match for the roots as they are, with some extra space. The substrate is 1-2cm of pumice/lava on the bottom and the old soil on top: Seramis with some impurities, mostly pine bark. Trying to grow moss on it.
Collected in ~2020 and counted ~37 or so rings on a branch I cut, and the cut was far enough from the base that it would have taken at least 3 years to reach the cut site from sprouting. Therefore my conservative estimate for its age is that it is at least 45 years old now, so sprouted ~1980 or earlier.

 

[Rivian]

Had an issue with uploading but I got it now, so here you go

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Nice! Looking strong. Maybe time for a detailed styling over the winter?

 

[Rivian]

I might give it a wiring and try some power tools on it before the year ends, but nothing too serious @MrFancyPlants

 

[Rivian]

Some thoughts on this tree:
Since it grew this way when relatively unrestrained, I believe its only somewhat apically dominant, whereas most yews Ive seen are very and produce straight trunks. If i knew it was also female, I might have propagated it because it would produce interesting plants when field growing with no oversight, but alas, no idea.

I did work it a little bit since last pic.

Tree is potentially for sale within Europe or preferably Germany, DM me your offer if interested.