I am working on some revolutionary methods for establishing newly collected Yamadori. I started back in November with five trees using different techniques, two failed but three have delivered spectacular results. Prunus Spinosa and Crataegus producing roots from the whole tree, these photos were taken in February. With this knowledge I set out and collected over 100 trees and these are now thriving. I am busy collecting Yews up to the end of April in the UK then over to mainland Europe for Pines and Picea. This year’s stock will be available for reserve for a deposit of 50% from Mid June onwards.

I have uploaded these photos in hi resolution so you can take a closer look if you ‘click’ on them!

New roots direct from the trunk

The white specks are the start of new roots, two weeks after this photo was take the roots were 2cm long!

A small section of the recently collected Prunus Spinosa and Crataegus, they are triving.

Matija was kind enough to take me to one of his happy yamadori hunting grounds. Fortunately we could drive a long way high into the mountains.

We still had to walk/climb for two hours but it sure was worth it! Larch, Spruce and Pine yamadori in abundance. Also the wild flowers at this time of year are spectacular.

We collected a couple of truly beautiful mugo pines with great movement and shari. Then it was on to simply one of the most impressive ‘Sumo’ Larch I have ever seen… and YES! Matija offered it to me… to collect NEXT YEAR! As it was a wee bit late in the season to collect.

So a European tour is in the planning for next year so that I can collect this rather handsome tree.

There was always going to be a time when I had to cut the BIG yew into two as the roots were contained in two separate pots. Each pot fed its own foliage, enabling ‘splitting’ the tree.

Using an Industrial size reciprocating saw and my friend Terry Foster we cut the tree in two. It took less than 20 minutes… something I waited three years to do and it was completed in such a short time.

This wonderful tree has such amazing deadwood, the challenge I now faced was how to blend the man mad cut with the natural deadwood? My work had to be ‘natural’ looking, not ‘carved and sculptured but in sympathy with the tree.

I did not want to ‘overwork’ the cut. I created indents, accentuated holes and smoothed out undulations deliberately leaving a ‘rough’ finish. I used chisels, wedges and split the tree along the grain of the tree. Where the wood became ‘confused’ I ripped and twisted the grain.

After three hours working without Makita’s or Dremmels I was satisfied that I was ready for the next stage. The tree would be ‘naturalised’ with sand blasting. I first sandblasted a tree 20 years ago using a blasting cabinet, that tree was only 75cm tall. This tree is over one metre, far too large to fit in a cabinet!

Close to my nursery is a commercial blasting company, and after covering the pot, foliage and live vein I ventured to them. The work was completed, a weather ‘ancient’ look had been created in less than an hour! The results are great.

I went collecting in the mountains of Slovakia with Pavel Slovak and a few guys from Slovakia, these guys are hard core that’s for sure. A total of 4 hours climbing made me realise that I was a lightweight when it came to seeking out Yamadori. The longest time I have taken to get to a site in the UK is less than one hour and requires an elevation of under 300 mtrs. This video shows how unbelievable I found the climb to be, and when Roman filmed this we were ONLY half way there!

Whilst on my European Tour this year I stayed for a few days with Enrico Savini and the
Progetto Futuro Bonsai School in Bologna, Italy. It was great fun working with the guys in the sunshine and doing some preparatory work on the yamadori trees that was selling at the EBA event in Ljubljana  here is a Prunus Spinosa that I worked. The trunk split into two about 20cm from the base, one trunk having wonderful movement and the other none whatsoever! After removing the offending trunk I set about creating a deadwood area as natural appearing as possible. Prunus Spinosa are becoming very popular with Bonsai artists throughout Europe as they are easy to work, display beautiful small white flowers in Spring and create good branch ramification quickly.

The tree is now in the ownership of Hungarian artist Sándor Papp who I am confident will create an amazing literati Bonsai from this tree.

Photo courtesy of Sándor Papp

It seemed like an opportunity too good to miss, an old tree with a wonderful trunk that could eventually be a great ‘mother and child’ bonsai, and the price was not expensive, problem was it was a Myrtle Communis. It came from a Mediterranean climate that was sunny, warm and dry for most of the year, I live in the North of England where it is cloudy, wet and cold for most of the year. The previous year I had experimented with a Majorcan Olive from Angel Mota and against all odds it actually did quite well. Should I part with my hard earned cash? Should I risk working with material that (as far as I knew) nobody in the UK had worked before? Should I take a risk? Three years later and the results speak for themselves.

The tree was purchased in the spring of 2009 as a stump with very little growth; it was potted in a VERY open mixture of pumice and bark. When I took a closer look at the base of the tree I noticed that there was a random ‘trunk’ growing across the space between the two main trunks. I pulled this out and planted it in a plant pot; it thrived and is now a sweet Shohin Bonsai in its own right. The base of the tree also had a very severe chain saw cut through the nebari (I guess this was the reason the tree was not expensive)

I needed to investigate the nebari and roots to see if I could rescue the situation of the saw cut, and repot in a mixture more suitable to my climate.

Once removed from the plastic container I discovered a much larger base and far fewer roots than expected, however the tree seemed healthy enough. I carved out the BIG cut and created a ‘deadwood’ area that would finally form part of the nebari. I also removed stumps around the top of the tree and created a ‘natural’ looking taper. At this stage the main concern was health, the creation of mature branches and the development of good ramification.

The tree was left to grow untouched by wire but pinched back to two leaves throughout the growing season, that being from May to December. The growth proved to be quite dramatic this was due to a lot of feeding and keeping the tree in the glass house for 9 months of the year, only moving to the open garden during the warmer summer months. This year in the UK has been the wettest on record and the glass house has been my saviour for many trees.

After the first year I wired the main branches and created a crown for both trunks and the last two years this has been the task. Constant vigilance ensuring that the ramification is correctly maintained, pinching out long growth, keeping the shape in check and creating a pleasing silhouette.

I doubt whether that I will ever have a hot summer long enough to force the tree to flower and even fruit,  this being one of the best features in Myrtle. Maybe I let the tree have a holiday at my good friend Enrico Savini and his garden in Bologna.

Having developed my twin trunked Myrtle over the last three years and being happy that a tree from the south of Italy could indeed thrive in my garden I decided to GO LARGE and take on a rather bigger Myrtle. This was originally owned by Andrea Meriggioli and was brought over from Italy by my good friend JP to the Burrs event earlier this month, the tree caused quite a stir when brought into the workshop by two of the younger participants.

The previous owner had worked the tree for a number of years, developing branches and cleaning the trunk line of stumps. It’s up to me to bring the tree to exhibition level by further developing the canopy, working on the dead areas, repotting and refining. The current soil may well be ideal for Northern Italy but it is far from suitable for the cold wet North of England, this will be address in the spring when the tree will be repotted.

Careful consideration as to the design of the tree will happen over the winter months, it is my opinion that there are two trees within the current incarnation; I may well split the tree in two at repotting… lets see when the tree is removed!

I will shorten the long branches to two leaves, this will help me decide what will happen next. Its going to be an interesting few years but the outcome will be worth it I am sure.

Earlier this month I was hanging on a rope over an 80 meter drop digging out this Yew. That was after a drive of 5 hours, a four mile walk into the hills and a very hard climb. The rain was lashing down and the dig was hard. Whilst hanging on the rope over a scary precipice, soaked to the skin and freezing cold I reflected on some recent posts on Internet bonsai forums. “Is yamadori too expensive?”.

I can only guess that those that pose this question have no idea on exactly what it takes to collect great material and make it available for others to create great bonsai. Would bonsaigirl* from Devon; make the effort to find the site, get permission, buy the gear, take a day off work, get a mate to help, get up at 5.00am drive five hours, walk in, rope up, climb down, dig for two hours suspended on a rope, carry back, pot up, establish for at least two years and have the expertise and recovery facilities to look after the tree over this period then sell for less than the cost of the fuel I somehow think not. Is yamadori too expensive? you decide.

Here are the roots after removing the rock and cleaning the duff away

*this is a made up person NOT a real poster

Three years is a long time to find out if your collected tree has made enough root in the right place to enable you to pot the tree into a training pot. I had reached the stage where the BIG yew was ready, would there be enough root, would it fit into the BIG pot I had prepared, could I make this big heavy tree stable and secure?

My good friend David Barlow was there to help me. David is a superb engineer and this tree would require some clever sub soil engineering to make it stable.
The tree was suspended between to plant pots so that I could work to remove the plastic pots easily. David held the tree and I set to work. I was very pleased with the amount of new root the tree had made.

When the tree was collected very little root was on the tree, careful maintenance and a strict regime of misting, feeding, placement and feeding had brought the tree on well… I was happy to start the work.
The Yew had been planted in a VERY open soil mix of Acadama, Grit and pumice and a small amount of orchid bark. This ensured good drainage and an easy media for root growth.
Once the old plastic pots had been cut away the roots could be inspected closely, I decided to cut away eight inches of root so that the tree would sit well in the pot. I was aware of the old deep root from the time that the tree was collected (photograph EVERYTHING) had I not removed this the tree would have not have looked stable in the pot.
I would have liked to have had the deadwood at the base of the tree overhanging the pot, BUT when the tree was positioned in the pot it simply did not work, it had to be removed!

Two hardwood blocks were employed to stabilize the tree, they were fixed in place with copper wire. The base of the tree was drilled and 4mm Copper used to tie in the tree through the holes in the base of the pot.
I used large size pure Acadama in the potting as this had proved very successful on previous potting of large Yew in my garden. Once the soil was filled to the rim of the pot the drama created by the base of the tree could be enjoyed. This was important as the visual weight of tree required a strong base to sustain the appearance of a massive tree.
The first styling of the tree with the basic branch structure put in place was in November, this potting was two months ago and the tree has responded well. I guess it will be AT LEAST ten years before this tree is ready for showing… BUT it will be worth it.

Over the last 25 years I have collected many amazing Yamadori, in all that time I have NEVER discovered a tree quite like this Taxus Bacatta that was growing half way down a limestone cliff. The amazing deadwood and twisting live vein gave the tree an incredible ancient presence.

I believe that very few people… maybe none has ever seen this tree as it’s in a VERY inhospitable, almost inaccessible location, it has survived many hundreds of years… I wanted this tree, but I also felt a deep sense of respect for this ancient survivor… so that’s where its staying.

Today I did the progressive styling on the Tall Yew.  The tree is now well established in the pot and has a strong root system that’s developing sturdy branches and a lot of foliage. With the help of a hot summer and careful feeding regime the tree is growing well.

The Progressive styling

I removed about 30% of the foliage, and wired the rest. I grew a branch at the rear of the tree and replaced the previous one on the lower right because it was brought down from the crown and I was not happy with the structure. This branch now needs to thicken and ramify, the branches are left uncut to grow long, and these will be cut back at the end of the growing season. The lower left branch is well underway and has been cut back to a few needles. Where I want back budding I have removed the inner needles on three year old wood

Due to the vigorous growth the wire will be removed next Autumn just prior to the branches thickening, this growth has also helped the thickening of the live vein.

Branches left to grow to thicken

Branches trimmed to force ramification

Inner needles removed to encourage back budding

Thickening of the live Vein

When the tree was collected in 2007

I collected this Juniperus Communis in 2008 from a granite cliff, the rocks were split and I was able to collect 99% of the root that was growing in the duff between the cracks. I learnt from Peter Thali you must only collect from granite, collecting from limestone will surely lead to failure and up to this point that has always been the case. I know of only one ‘large’ Juniperus Communis that have survived from the UK. I collected a few of these amazing specimens over 25 years ago… they all died! It could be that they were planted in the wrong mixture, not enough roots, too much/little water, disease, fungus, rust… the list is endless… Juniperus Communis should only be collected if you really know what you are doing.

The tree was planted in a soil mixture I was given from my friend Pavel Slovak. It is made up of collected mountain grit that is mostly limestone and tufa, mixed with pumice. The particles are 1mm to 3mm so really quite small, it’s almost sand in texture. This is NOT normally good in the wet climate of the UK… but it has made the tree thrive! So when it comes to re-potting into the position ready to style the tree I will reuse the soil.

Two years ago I cleared out a lot of the growth that was a long way from the ‘action’. The trunk spirals and twists in lots of directions and there was some great growth close to the trunk. This is what you can see in the photos after two further year’s growth.

I see a very compact tree with the emphasis on showing the twisty trunk. I will use the foliage for the final tree and NOT replace with Itoigawa as is the fashion. My reason is that I love to work with our native trees, Juniperus Communis would be a great addition to my private collection. This tree is not for sale

Earlier this week I took a friend from Italy Andrea Meriggioli to some of my special places where the most amazing trees grow. He was surprised that these incredible trees were in the UK. Especially the BIG deadwood Yew.

How I see the BIG yew developing over the next 15 years

This is a very old Yew collected in 2010, it is a tree that I visited on the hill many times before the tree was collected, and one that I took students to as an example of a ‘real’ yamadori in the wild. It was never my intention to collect this tree, as it was very long, it was growing directly in a rock crevice on a cliff face with no foliage close to the base of the tree.

Whilst visiting the tree at the end of April 2010 I noticed that it had fallen from its lofty position and was being held in place by a very small section, the fierce weather that winter had dislodged the rock that was gripping the tree and the whole could at any time fall to the valley below.

There was only one course of action, ‘Save the tree’ and this took place the next day. Four friends, two on ropes and one helping with passing tools etc. helped me. The tree came away in less than ten minutes as 95% of it was hanging in mid air… But with little root as most had snapped off in the winter storms, what you see in the photo are dead roots that have been exposed to the weather for many months, you can see where the large rocks have fallen away.

After the second year I removed the top of the tree after encouraging new buds lower down the trunk, this was done by slicing the live vein 2cm above the buds to stop the flow of sap and force it to the weaker buds, this worked remarkably well and will callus over at a later date.

The new grown lower down the trunk is now very strong. I have planted the tree in a much larger container to give free root growth to thicken branches and to place the tree closer to the final design I am after. The potting mix is 60% Pumice 20% Acadama and 20% Kiryu.

I collected this Yamadori Yew in 2011, the tree was very slow to establish in the first couple of years, this is due to the cambium layer being very thin because the hard growing conditions that the tree suffered. In the third year the tree thrives and this year the growth has been very strong. With very old trees such as this it’s important that you wait for the growth of the foliage to be robust and vigorous for the future development of the tree, start work too early and you could set back development or worse kill the tree!

The work undertaken this week was to remove the thick upright deadwood branches, clear the smaller dead branches near the base of the tree and reposition the whole into the ‘final’ planting position. The tree will be left for a couple of years to extend and fill out the foliage mass. I will then work on the deadwood and finally sand blast to clean and smooth out some of the rough areas. Then the first styling will take place, another year in the box and finally planting into a training pot. The foliage mass will take at least 10 years to achieve the virtual image… but I can wait if the end result will look something like this.

I am happy with this tall yews development, the foliage is filling out well, the lower right hand branch needs a few years to fill out but its worth the wait. I have purchased a lovely Japanese exhibition quality pot that the tree will be finally placed.

Good aftercare, considered channeling of energy to the areas that I wanted rapid growth and my  Tibolar-RS feeding regime has produced this amazing growth on an ancient Yamadori yew that I call George… because he is an English Yew and was collected on St. Georges Day 4 years ago.

George Yew August 15

George Yew March 14

This is the first styling of the BIG Yew Bonsai, I have waited three years since the tree was potted into this pot, it was VERY healthy so now perfect for the work involved. There are no short cuts when it comes to creating a Yew Bonsai from raw yamadori stock, its a long process of structure, branch creation fine branches and foliage. I guess from mountain to Exhibition this will take 20 years, its already been 8 years since this tree came from the mountain, you can read earlier blog posts where I cut the tree in half, and Potting the tree for the first time

All trees have been collected longer than 2 years, all are bare rooted and in a soil mixture of Pumice, Akadama and alpine grit. Most have been second potted, I recommend that any newly purchased yamadori must never be worked in the first year of purchase, this allows the tree to acclimatise to new surrounding and enables the buyer to understand the nature of the species before making any interventions.

All the Blackthorns will all flower in the early spring with beautiful white flowers; some of the Hawthorns will flower.

Any trees purchased can be collected at The Noelanders trophy in January. I prefer NOT to ship but this can be arranged.

This is typical of the amount of root in these trees prior to the second potting:

If you are interested in any of the tree please contact me with the tree number here