Yew Are Kidding Me!!!

[Tidal Bonsai]

I have been scouring nurseries for about a month looking for something worth while for Shohin. Today I thought I found the one. It is a Taxus densiformis that I noticed good backbudding, a thicker trunk (about an 1.25 inches where the soil was at Loews) low slender branching, and it even had a Shari on the base of the trunk that I thought would give it some interest. All at only $15.



Once I got under the hood, it was a different story...

The nebari was over 2 inches under the soil level, and only had two prominent roots. The Shari ended up being a giant scar that gave me taper issues. I am good at carving, so I can do something creative with it once I figure it out. For now I am leaving it outside and revisiting the tree when I have an idea what I will do with it. Any ideas? These are the two best fronts that I can see.

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

This is the one I am leaning towards because the cut actually gives the base some interesting movement, and both heavy roots look good.

 

[JosephCooper]

Since the cut is healing over and causing the inverse taper, I think you should hide it.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I would forget about picking a front, for the time being. You can loosely train toward a general style, but don't get totally committed to any one thing. The 1.25 inch diameter trunk is still on the low side for shohin, better would be to get over 2 inches diameter, so into a grow pot it should go. Shallow, or at least less than 4 inches deep, and wide pot to grow it out. During this time work on the nebari. Yews throw roots easily, so developing a new nebari should not be difficult. If the 2 main roots are at an acceptable angle from each other you can keep them, just keep the zone you want the nebari to be in buried by at least 1/4, better is 1/2 and inch of media. Do not expose the nebari until it is ready for a show pot. Air exposure will stop roots from increasing in diameter. As fine roots develop around the trunk, be more aggressive pruning back the 2 main roots, eventually the newer fine roots will catch up enough to the thick ones that it will look a plausible nebari.

If the 2 root nebari is awkward, you can ground layer. One method is apply a tourniquet of wire, without scaring the bark. Just make it snug. Bury the point with the wire by more than 1 inch of media, as you need room where the roots will come out. As the trunk increases in diameter, the tourniquet will slowly squeeze off the roots below, and the tree should produce roots above the wire. This is the slow route - 3 or more years.

More drastic would be to remove a strip of bark where you want roots, but if the tree is not in a state of good vigor, it might fail. Its a quicker process, but also more likely to fail. I prefer to avoid aggressive style of ground layering if I can

Once you have good nebari, and a trunk over 2 inches in diameter NOW becomes the time to really finalize plans for style and picking a front. By this time your scars will have healed quite a bit, and everything else will change enough that you essentially will have a very different tree.