The story of a Japanese Yew (Part One)

This is the story of a Japanese Yew (Taxus Cuspidata). I think I have told this story once before in my blog but for this new version I have unearthed some previously unseen early photographs whilst the story is brought up to date to a recent styling in February 2023.

January 2005 – The tree arrives from Japan somewhat unceremoniously wrapped in a hessian sack. There were four trees in the batch and I bought two of them.

February 2010 – The tree had been standing for sale on the nursery and despite a lot of interest remained unsold. It looked impressive but maybe people were unsure how to get the tree out of the raw material.

The numerous branches made the tree very complex. I decided to use this tree for one of my demo days in February 2010 to carry out its initial styling.

Sometimes you just need to have a closer look!

Basically I decided to remove the foliage areas edged in red and create the entire tree from the large first branch on the left.

It certainly looks different and now there is a lot of deadwood to create.

I marked out the edges of the live veins feeding the remaining live branch.

I then left my brilliant assistants Len and Derek to strip off the bark and create the deadwood.

A tree never had so much attention lavished on it!

The Remaining live branches were wired ready for positioning. So long ago I look more like Harry Potter here!!

The tree at the end of the demo after this first styling and propped up to show what the new planting angle will look like.

Quite a transformation and now with just two live veins feeding the remaining live foliage. The deadwood was made using hand tools only and looked really convincing considering it was newly created.

Keep an eye on the website for part two to catch up on the further development of this remarkable tree.