Developing a procured Yew

Is there a limit to how many threads I can juggle at once?  O.o  
In addition to the redwood coming tomorrow, which you guys have been so helpful in thinking through, I have this guy sitting around.  It's a yew, found in a to small pot on sale for a dollar because of some yellowing needles.  I would estimate 20%, it's probably less than that.  All I've done with it so far is to take it out of it's confinement and re-pot it.  I took my best newbie guess on the soil.  I went with 50% Miracle Gro Cactus Mix and 50% Perlite.  If I picked well, wonderful.  Otherwise suggest better things!  I know that several of you gave suggestions in the other post.  

The "tree" itself is a thick stem that was buried halfway up in the pot it was in.  If you look you can see the random ring of roots halfway up the trunk from that.  What you can't see is that about two inches below the surface the "root" is a large curved paddle shape.  I wasn't sure to handle it, so I buried it for further consideration after talking to you guys.  Like I said, it's a single root, fairly thick that seems to flatten at the end.  It's covered pretty thoroughly in fine roots.  

So, there you have it.  Cool root, thick stem, Lots of branches.  I thought that seemed like something I could work with.  What do you think?  

This is a request for styling advice, as well and suggestions on how to handle the roots halfway up the trunk. It's my first tree, and I'd love to have you guys looking over my shoulder for awhile.

Perlite and cactus mix 50/50 isn't bad, but it's not optimal. It should be fine. I wouldn't do anything to it but water and fertilize until next year. When you know it's healthy you can do some work on it. You may want to grow it out more to increase the trunk girth.