Greetings,
Let's introduce a new fellow. Another tree for me to learn about and grow.
This is a tree species I have been wanting to own for many years, and now I have one.
Reasons I love the Yew tree:
Yew can hedge them. Yew can make cuttings. Yew can keep them alive for hundreds of years. Yew can get red berries on them in winter, but yew can't eat them, or yew will die. Yew can bend the wood as much as yew want, and it will probably never break. Yew can often see beautiful reddish streaks in the wood layers, due to the tannins. Yew can make the best longbows with the strong, flexible wood. Yew can prune and water it as much as yew want, and it will still grow back in every direction. Yew get to enjoy thick, soft, dark green foliage all year long. Yew have an excuse to make endless puns every time you want to talk about it.
Only thing it isn't any good for is doing your taxus for you.
This little tree was a must-buy splurge when I found it on sale at the end of October. I think they were trying to get rid of it marked down to the $8 to $12 range as I recall.
Usually these ornamental hedge trees sell for $35 or more, because it can take many years to develop them into even a medium sized shrub.
The Yew tree is commonly referenced in English folklore and legends. Able to live over a millennium, they can become enormous. To touch the same Yew tree told about in the same legends of Robin Hood, for instance, this tree carries with it a bit of ancient magical wonder.
This variety promises thick back budding. Here at the base of the trunk, it is loaded up with dense foliage on first year, weak little stems.
For those who are feint of heart, and cannot stand the sight of trees being pruned, butchered, twisted, uprooted, and ravaged senselessly...
Turn back now!
Bonsai is a ruthless, barbaric hobby sometimes, and below I am going to get a bit savage with my most diabolical medieval weapons of mass destruction.
First thing I noticed is the soil is very deep and narrow, and at the center is a very thick taproot. Removing the bottom third of root area will allow me to replant the tree into a wider training pot.
The hori hori is my goto garden knife. It shreds through soil like a hot iron through butter. This tree root was made of tougher stuff than even my knife.
Next I tried my bonsai tool: the angled root/branch pruners.
I could almost hear the tree laughing at me as my elbow shook, my wrists clenched, and my hands mashed bone deep against the carbon steel handles. The tears and grunts of past herculean endeavors were nothing compared to the demoralizing gutteral tones inflicted by squeezing these bladed pliers into the rock hard rootball.
The hacksaw was my only other option.
Seriously, the wood on this tree is the hardest I have ever attempted to cut. Since it is smooth, hard, and flexible, the roots are very resistant to even allowing a saw tooth to chew through, often forcing the sharpened edge to roll off.
The cut has been completed. At more than an inch in diameter, this is quite impressive.
Did you know that the best direction to make a cut through the wood is to slice through a perfect perpendicular angle to the edge of the wood? Never cut on a diagonal along the grain. Why?
Master gardeners now say there is more evidence that demonstrates tree wounds will heal better if the cut is as small as possible. The smallest cut possible is always to cut cleanly across the grain.
After cleaning the soil off, the beet red roots are exposed.
Seeing the roots and trunk in this way I can best determine how deep the soil should be and where the soil line should be.
Ideally the roots should be fully submerged in the soil, and the trunk is placed so it appears widest at the soil surface.
Not much I can do about the slight scarring where the bark was chipped off the trunk.
Notice this trunk line already has an interesting curving style. It will be ideal to choose a planting angle so the shape of this curvatious trunk becomes a prominent visible feature.
Many thinning cuts were made to reduce the number of little branches clustered around the trunk. Thinning cuts are also helpful to remove competing and crowded branches.
Heading cuts were made on the tallest and longest branches. Many of those branches were so long and heavy, they were likely going to either arch into the soil, or pull the entire tree down from their tipping weight.
Some small stems I allowed to remain near the base. With the added increase of airflow and access to sunlight I have provided by pruning the other competing branches away, those little branches should gain a renewal of vigor. Eventually they might help fill the base of the trunk with more girth. And I can always remove these sacrificial limbs later in the future.
This tree was pruned and replanted on October 30, 2021.
Many of the cut limbs were saved, and were buried into compost. If any of the cuttings root this way, I can share the results and possibly create more bonsai trees.
In the meantime, I looked to the skyline to look at the different types of nearby trees for inspiration.
Photos in this post are all #originalworks by 
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