Erika_Leaman - Taxus Raft Contest Thread

[Erika_Leaman]

I found this taxus which I plan to pot up in spring.


No wait sorry... wrong photo...



I've been on the fence whether i should either bother keep this thing.
But then I had an idea.

Most Taxus bonsai I've seen typically follow a conventional Japanese model, often simular deadwood to Junipers. But ancient Taxus in the wild don't look like that.

I visited the Fortingall Yew this year for my birthday, which is alleged to be 5000-10000 years old. But their true age is something that cannot be determined due to their growing (or should I say, decomposing) habit.

They rot from the inside out... then they grow roots from the living matter through the decomposing matter.

What remains of the Fortingall Yew, and other truly ancient specimen of Taxus, is a ring of smaller trunks, attached to one root system.


(Photo from Fred Hageneder - Yew, 2013. Page 69)

 

[Erika_Leaman]

More photos from Fred Hageneder - Yew, 2013 showing this growth habit.

 

[Erika_Leaman]

So my plan with the sapling above, which I collected from a clients garden in 2024. Is basically bend the tip of the apex in a ring to the lower trunk. And then plant it laid down like one would as a raft...


The plan after that... who knows

 

[Cruiser]

Good idea. I like bonsai that exemplify less-common forms found in the wild.

That first pic is awesome.
Old pacific yews around here sometimes develop into raft variations like that. When one lives for 300 years beneath 200 ft trees, they inevitably end up bent or pinned down from falling debris…

I have a few collected yews that have this form, but none that display the ringed pattern.

 

[Erika_Leaman]

Thankyou, that one was found by the bank of a river I like to explore. I suspect it fell many years ago from erosion.

 

[ShadyStump]

THIS is whole other level of inspiration.