Yew for bonsai

[Cajunrider]

A friend gave me 3 of this. Two are little and one is 3ft tall with 5/8" trunk. Do they make decent bonsai?

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Yew make great bonsai, however they are quite slow growing so it would take a very long time before yours has trunked up enough to be interesting material. At least up here in NY state they are a pretty popular landscape plant. There are a lot of old yews around here in people’s yards that look kinda “crappy” (Grown out of shape) that I’m sure plenty of people would be happy to get rid of. You may be better off hunting down an old landscape yew that somebody doesn’t want anymore. I feel like their foliage is a bit too coarse to look good with only a thin trunk usually.

 

[just.wing.it]

That is a strange looking Taxus, yew have there.....have a close up of the foliage and bark?

 

[Cajunrider]

That is a strange looking Taxus, yew have there.....have a close up of the foliage and bark?

My friend told me he bought it as Japanese Yew from Home Depot years ago so it could be anything. It has red berries.

 

[just.wing.it]

Hmm, yes its a yew....but just very long leaves....or needles.....or whatever you wanna call them, especially for a Japanese variety.

 

[Forsoothe!]

And seemingly long internodes? Maybe not a good candidate for bonsai, even if the OP had the years to give.

 

[LanceMac10]

Podacarpus?

 

[just.wing.it]

Podacarpus?

That's what I thought initially, but I'm not familiar enough with them.

 

[just.wing.it]

Podacarpus?

According to Google, Japanese Yew is a common name for Podocarpus.....though its not a Taxus at all.

 

[TomB]

Japanese yew is normally the common name for Taxus cuspidata - but those plants don't look right for it, the leaves are way too big.

 

[Cajunrider]

I think y'all are right. It appears to be podocarpus.

 

[Forsoothe!]

According to Google, Japanese Yew is a common name for Podocarpus.....though its not a Taxus at all.

Suddenly, this makes a lot of sense. Yews don't do real good south of the Mason-Dixon. They hate hot and dry.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Yes, that is a Podocarpus. And they do make passable good bonsai. Google "Buddhist Pine bonsai". Very popular for Chinese Penjing.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Ah, yes. Japanese yew Buddhist Pine bonsai. That's why we use Latin nomenclature.