Yew Design Ideas

Temps are finally staying above freezing at night; took hoop house down yesterday...and I have my backyard back! Yes! lol

This yew is so ready for the styling with tons of options. I'll post some pics soon.

Ok, here she it today. I've spent a good deal of time playing with this one, trying to come up with a good design. But to be honest, I too keep coming back to your virt Rob. It's the best option for movement and taper. I also agree a lot with Dorothy, the R. jin needs to be taller than the virt. So I'll do exactly what Dorothy suggested too, leaving the jin quite tall till I get my apex more developed and make the jin's ht. the final adjustment to the composition.

Cool tree! Rob's idea was pretty good! That's a perfectly good option. There's a couple other options though. Here's how I see a more conventional style for this tree. This option may be faster to achieve.

Here's a thumbnail sketch.
Good luck!

The only thing I would have done differently is to NOT jin the cut branches. I think this is what Dorothy was saying. It is ok to cut back the long branches, but don't jin the stubs until the final design is completed. Had you not jin the cut branches, they might have budded back and you could have had a lot more branches and options to work with now.

Si, Thanks so much for your vision and virt, as well as explaining about the jins. I 'now' understand about the jins and totally agree. I've learned the last yr to always leave as many options as possible. I'm now dealing with an amateurish job of carving and jinning a cool Pondy as got as one of my first really nice trees. Never should've done that kind of work with so little relative experience. Bonsai and learn right?

Regarding your virt, that's a great eye! Just to note, I did decide to change the front to the pics above for a better line, so I totally agree with your front lol So your design really works with this new front, and it flows really nicely. I like it very much if you can't tell lol I really think I'm going to go with your design Si. I'll wire and style this spring. I'll cut back the branches I'm not using, but I'll def leave them long. I'm going to be learning to carve and work dwood this coming summer with Ryan. So I'm holding off all dw work till I have more experience. I just need to confirm how much foliage to remove in this initial style. I'm thinking like a redwood/bald cypress.

Ok. I like this a lot. Might be a bit tall still? Left the huge branch on r. bottom for health of tree as I removed so much. Need a better picture with no background and the correct front..I was tired and rushed at the end lol

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... Hard to explain but it really depends what "your" final vision of the plant is. For instance I plan on this one to be 36 inches even after carving, growing, trimming and where it decides to through grow along the way... Taller items require additional years if not at least 3 years of just growing while making and changing plans...

Grimmy

Hi Chris, the moment I saw this I was reminded of my old western hemlock. Here it is 2 years apart, as far as it got, it was lost in the early freeze of 2010.
Very similar eh? I was going to keep the bottom branch and sounds like you're going to remove yours but still, damn near the same tree to start! The hemlock was one of my first, wish it was still around.

Funny wireme, very similar indeed. Yes, that bottom branch is too straight and really doesn't work with what I imagined.

@fore any updates on this one?

It's come a way. But I somewhat screwed up the dw I made by not leaving a vein visible from the front. Major mistake. But I learned something lol

This is for Si and Rob...just got it into bonsai pot. I really feel I was able to pull off Si's design...so far. Thanks guys for the help!

Nice to see this progression!
Now get some wire in and it will realy start to look like something!

fore said:

This is for Si and Rob...just got it into bonsai pot. I really feel I was able to pull off Si's design...so far. Thanks guys for the help!

Click to expand...

After spending Jan/feb going through a ton of old threads like this one & seeing how active @october was I sent him a pm to see what he's up to. He still has some trees but has been battling pests/disease almost non stop so he hasn't been able to work on his trees much & it's kind of sapping his interest in the hobby if I understood him correctly. If you have the time could be worth it sending him a pm with an updated pic & a link to this thread to help back up when I told him his knowledge was helpful here & has been missed in his absence, which I understand completely, only being able to water your trees while constantly treating them is enough to get any enthusiast down

I find these styling threads to be super helpful! Do you have any recent pics @fore ?