Collecting Urban Yamadori

[catfish chapstick]

So I may have an opportunity to dig up some urban yamadori type yew plants. I've never collected a yew let alone grown one. What are the chances it could survive winter if disturbed right now? What can I do to increase chances of survival? They appear to be fairly large but I haven't gone in for close inspection yet.. Basically it would be a lot of work to get these out of the ground.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Nomiyama]

One of my best Yews came out of an old landscape. Yes they are hard to get out of the ground, if they have been there awhile but the character makes up for it. When I finally got mine out, lots of feeder roots were present which was a good thing. I took a chainsaw to the bottom tap root and tried to bareroot as much clay as possible to aid in recovery. Then it went into a concrete tub with good bonsai soil and was left alone for a few years to recover. I then worked it into a bonsai pot just this last year, I've had it about 10 years. This coming spring will be the first time I wire the tree. So for you all I can say is yes yew are strong, but give them time to recover. I would also suggest leaving it in the garage this year to minimize freezing of the rootball if your collecting it this fall.

 

[Bonsai_Bango]

Great looking tree Nomiyama!