RESTYLING MY OLD YAMADORI YEW.

Hi everybody,
I would like to show you some pictures that were made a couple of days ago during the restyling of my old yew! This yew is verry special to me, because it is the first yamadori that I ever collected. And this is how I was able to do so. During the first Ginkgo Awards in '97 I met Tony Tickle and the gang for the first time. And let just say that it clicked from the start and leave it at that! We had so much fun! So much that we all together made the Japanese guest of honor faint during the prize presentation after the gala diner! True story this! Any way, during that same weekend Tony had invited me to come and stay at his place for a weekend of fun and Yamadori trips! I gave it some serious thought for 0,009 off a second and than sad in a high pitched voice YES!!!! So in early 1998, I drove all the way to the North of England. And the Yew in this story was the verry first tree that I collected on the first day! And you can see on the picture below that I was pretty happy and excited! Collecting this tree changed my future in Bonsai, because it was the one that got me hooked on this way of doing Bonsai. So this tree hold a lot of warm memories in it! Not in the last place all the fun that I had with mad man Tony!



Below:At the end of that same year, the upper part of the tree sadly died. Of the few branches that survived on the lower part of the tree, only two strong young branches were usable in my design! So I would try to shape this future Bonsai out of only two branches! And the part that died will also be incorporate into the future design! It is after all a sign of this tree's past! But my first care was to get the poor Yew back to health!



Below: And by 2003 it looked like this. The picture is not that good, but it is the best that I have from that time. The tree has recovered well from it's ordeal! The higher off the two remaining branches has grown into trunk from witch new branches has grown. The second lower left branch is styled as a cascading branch to fill that empty space. This hanging branch pushes the whole tree upwards, making it more balanced!



Some 2 years later the tree started to lose it health and became verry weak. It took me up to now to get it back in to it's usual form! But it had sadly lost most of the importand left hanging branch. Only the back part of that branch had survived those bad years!

So today I am realy pleased that this special tree is still with me and that after it had these few rough years it is healthy enough again for me to restyle it!
Below: The tree before styling. The live part of left bottom branch is wrapped with a layer in water soaked raffia. Than two lengths of 2.5mm aluminium wire were applied lengthwise on the outside of the future new curves. I need to bend this now backward growing branch as much to the frond as posible. These two lengthwise placed wires will prevent the branch from breaking on the greatest stress point, the outside of the new curves/bends that I will bring in to the branch! That was followed by a other layer of tightly applied raffia. And than finaly two normal layers of 3,5mm aluminium wire were brought one! This should be enough to protect the branch from breaking, hopefully! The long jin you see in the front of that branch will be used as a anchor point for the guidewires that I will need to hold that heavily bend branch in to it's new place.



Below: side view, red arrow shows the remains of the part of that branch that use to grow towards the frond. The yellow arrow shows the branch that now needs to get as close as posible to the former place of that importand missing branch!



Below: Well it worked even better than expected! From were the branch is now it is posible to give that branch enough weight to balance the design. So I was realy happy with that resuld!



Below: Basic outline is there. I like the bottom left branch, but the branch above it is overpowering it. It is to long and most of the smaller branches at its tip are long and weak with not much change for future new buds. So why wait for something that probable will never come?! So the branch was cut back drastic to change it appearance but also to redirect more energy in to the strong zones!



Below: Here the branch is cut back to a intersection with a smaller side branch (yellow arrow). This branch will replace the cut off branch as the new leader.



Below: Branch more or less in place and I am glad with the resuld of cutting that thick branch off!



Below: Look at the difference open spaces and more separations in the foliage makes!



Below: And after a lot more work! This is the finished resuld for now! I had plenty more pictures, but I had to stop some were and it is getting verry late over here!
I am glad that I was able to bring back some of the trees original image back in to this new design!



In the future when new buds have appear higher on the newly formed branches they can be shortened just that little bid more to make the tree look just that little bit more compact! And the Jin that now holds the wires for the bottom branch in place will be shortened and restyled as soon as those wires can be removed! But for now I am glad that my old friend is back with his new haircut!
I hope you enjoyed this little story!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

PS: That little fern that you can see growing in that last picture, on the right side of the trunk, has landed there by pure change! I find them all over my garden and in many Bonsai pots as well! Normally I remove them and make them in to accent plants, but this one...well it looks allright for now. And they play chess together..so I realy did not have the heart to separate them!

another awesome tree, hans! very nice story and progression series as well, thanks for sharing!

very Hans.

regards,
jun

Looks good, and what a story of survival! Do you have any idea what happened along the way to cause the tree to struggle/lose vigor a couple of times? Bad soil, over/under-watering, something else? Have you changed what you're doing (watering, fertilizing, etc)? I'm curious because I recently obtained a nice yew and would like to keep it healthy.

Chris

Very nice Hans ,good to read the story.

it is the inspirational special trees in our collections that bring the biggest smiles - the day i managed to get the one tree that inspired me to start the bonsai hobby was a very good day - 25 years after I first saw it though !! - i look at that tree every day i can, and pause to enjoy it. You can tell your yew is a similar tree, one to evoke good memories - these trees are priceless to their owners - i hope everyone manages to own such a tree.

nice to see the progression of many years in one post, thanks

Marcus

Hi Hans
Thanks for sharing, Very nice tree and story.
Great job, congratulations.
Gretings Pavel

Hans,
It's great to have you back posting your trees.

Hi Hans! Great development with your Yew. If you do not mind, here is a suggestion for a possible future? I just made it narrower and more upright.
Best wishes,
Mark

coh wrote:Looks good, and what a story of survival! Do you have any idea what happened along the way to cause the tree to struggle/lose vigor a couple of times? Bad soil, over/under-watering, something else? Have you changed what you're doing (watering, fertilizing, etc)? I'm curious because I recently obtained a nice yew and would like to keep it healthy.

Chris

Hi chris,
I think that it was a combination of several things that weakened this tree. Underfeeding, and standing in soaked ground for to long! Last season I started to feed my trees weekly with a liquid Fertilizer and several times during the growing season sprayed the foliage of my yews with fish emulsion. That worked wonders on the weaker trees! I discovered the soaked ground problem two years ago. I had repotted two trees, a fat trunk Acer buergerianum and a Acer palmatum twin trunk in a shallow pot, because the water did not run out of the pots like it supposed to do. I shortened the well established flat roots by more than half and planted them back in there original pots. With, like always, a bottom layer with large grain sized akadama, kiryu and bims. Than a thick layer with smaller grain size in which the bonsai is planted. And than a thin layer of smaller grain size to to fill the pot up. Now you would normally expect that the water would run right trough using a loose and open ground mixture like this. Well it didn't! At least, not all off it! After repotting I watered both trees and I placed them in a sheltered spot. Next day I tilted the pots and placed a piece of wood underneed them. After just a few seconds water started to run out the drainage and wire holes on the lower part of the pot. Now I could imagine that this would happened with a wide and shallow pot, but not with a regular pot with 3 large draining holes in them! So I started to test this on all my bonsai, who all have more or less the same open soil mixture. And more than half had the same problem! There was more water left in those pot than I could ever believe. And one of the Bonsai that suffered from this drainage problem was the yew in this story. So now every time after watering or when it rains, I will put small wooden blocks under one side of all the trees that retain to much water! Tilted in this way much less water will stay behind on the bottom of the pot and water that stays behind only fills the corner of the pot and not the whole pot! It is wise to check the drainage of your bonsai/pot every now and then. Roots grow and fill out the pot, so things change all the time! I know that those small blocks under need my problem trees/pots make sure that they dont drawn any more and to prevent root rot!
Hoop this helps!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Pavel Slovák wrote:Hi Hans
Thanks for sharing, Very nice tree and story.
Great job, congratulations.
Gretings Pavel

Hi Pavel,
I am glad you like it!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

marcus watts wrote:it is the inspirational special trees in our collections that bring the biggest smiles - the day i managed to get the one tree that inspired me to start the bonsai hobby was a very good day - 25 years after I first saw it though !! - i look at that tree every day i can, and pause to enjoy it. You can tell your yew is a similar tree, one to evoke good memories - these trees are priceless to their owners - i hope everyone manages to own such a tree.

nice to see the progression of many years in one post, thanks

Marcus

Hi Marcus!
Yes so true, Bonsai is so much more than the temporary image at a show. They are great stories and memories in a pot and you can get quit attached to them!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Mark Morris wrote:Hi Hans! Great development with your Yew. If you do not mind, here is a suggestion for a possible future? I just made it narrower and more upright.
Best wishes,
Mark

Hi Mark!
And I dont mind at all! It is nice that my tree inspired you to this nice design you made in your virtual! And if you dont mind, than I would like to share with you some more details about the tree and why I styled it in this way! You made me look back over many years to re invent why I did certain thing all that time ago and that was fun! Because half the time I dont know what I am doing! I am still working on some pictures that I made this afternoon especially for that purpose and I hope to post them, together with the how and whey's, tomorrow! Because now it is after 2 over here and I am off to bed now!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Hans, I've noticed that with some plants as well (water draining out of the pot when you move it, well after watering). I've even seen it in recently repotted trees, i.e. ones where the roots haven't had time to block up the drainage.

I remember seeing a picture in a book or magazine where a grower in Japan had all his trees tilted on blocks like you describe - to allow better drainage after rain. I think the trees were all shohin and smaller sizes...not sure whether the effect is dependent on pot size to some degree. Haven't ever seen any nurseries around here where the plants are all tilted.

Chris

Hi Hans,
Beautiful yew, good work and a professional photo.

Here are some pictures to dream.

Best wishes
Peter
_____________________________________________
THE WORLD OF THE POT: http://www.peter-krebs.de/

peter krebs wrote:Hi Hans,
Beautiful yew, good work and a professional photo.

Here are some pictures to dream.





Best wishes
Peter
_____________________________________________
THE WORLD OF THE POT: http://www.peter-krebs.de/

Wow Peter,
thank you for taking the time to make all these beautiful virtuals! They show perfectly how a different pot style or pot color can change the image of the whole Bonsai! Above: I like how the color of the first pot brings out the colors of my tree. And I simply love how the shape of the bottom pot enhances the shape of my tree! I liked this style of pot always and your virtual gave me a great idea what and were to look for in the next pot for my yew! Thanks you for that Peter!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Buenas tardes, un abrazo gran HANS, grande entre los grandes, yo soy pequeño, supongo que descubrirás quien soy

hoy me he inscrito en este foro, y me gusta, no sabia por donde empezar y he aprovechado tu post, ya que te conozco y
admiro tus trabajos, este del tejo es muy bueno, espero poder estar con ustedes , ya que también estoy enfermo por los arboles
y aquí creo que también lo están

perdona las faltas o perdonen, pues no se como se interpretara con el traductor

un abrazo me ha gustado encontrarte por aqui, otro para TONI que creo que modera por aqui

bueno ya he roto el hielo esperando que me acepten por aqui y pueda mostrar mi humilde trabajo
gracias

ANZA wrote:Buenas tardes, un abrazo gran HANS, grande entre los grandes, yo soy pequeño, supongo que descubrirás quien soy

hoy me he inscrito en este foro, y me gusta, no sabia por donde empezar y he aprovechado tu post, ya que te conozco y
admiro tus trabajos, este del tejo es muy bueno, espero poder estar con ustedes , ya que también estoy enfermo por los arboles
y aquí creo que también lo están

perdona las faltas o perdonen, pues no se como se interpretara con el traductor

un abrazo me ha gustado encontrarte por aqui, otro para TONI que creo que modera por aqui

bueno ya he roto el hielo esperando que me acepten por aqui y pueda mostrar mi humilde trabajo
gracias

Hola Anza.

Bienvenido en este IBC foro!
Me alegre que te gusta mi tejo.
Pero es una pena que no hay mucho gente en este foro quien hablan espanol y no comprenden o pueden leer
que escribes.
Por eso espero que puedes usar el traductor porque esperamos que podemos ver tu trabajo aqui en este foro de IBC !

Saludos ,
Hans van Meer.

Hej Hans

Supert træ du har fået strikket sammen.

Venlig hilsen Yvonne

Yvonne Graubaek wrote:Hej Hans

Supert træ du har fået strikket sammen.

Venlig hilsen Yvonne

Hej Yvonne,
Det glæder mig at høre!
Art angår,
Hans van Meer.

good morning Hans. Please reply and post test launched this.
Got that right?
a hug

Hi everybody,
I finaly have found a Chinese round pot that is better suited for the new image of my Yew. The repotting went very smoothly, after all those years of root work, the present rootball consist for 90% out off small feeder roots. That made removing the old soil very easy. Although this new pot looks smaller than the old pot, there is actually more room for the roots to grow! This is importand, because the tree is still recovering from loosing foliage and some branches and needs to fill out again! Any way, I hope you guy's like the new pot tree combo?!



Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Awesome job Hans!!

Amazing tree Hans and a suitable pot .
Great job as usual.

Best regards Lazaros.