@Bas: Well.. Any bonsai will take many years to complete. The nice thing about this one is, I do not have to worry about grwoing the stem. Unfortunately, the thing has many bulging branches which might be an issue. And eh.. It is not safed yet. The next 3 moths are critical. If it does not recover enough before winter hits, I will loose the plant.

@Leslie: I am never worries about natural circumstances. I find that if a plant is healthe, it can withstand loads of maltreatment. However, the grubs I am worried about. I know what they can do to mature established hedges (Yes, they can actually kill). So I might do someting I do not like to do, and use poison on the roots; There is a special poison that the plant may take up and when animals feed off the roots, they will die. Not a very nice thing to do, but there are dozens of them, and only one tree. Who told them life was supposed to be fair anyway..

As for learning: We all learn. And the ones that learn most are the ones taking the biggest risk. If you do not take the risk, you wil lnever know whether it would have worked. So I just take my basic understanding of plant fysiology, the natural location of a plant to grow, and take it from there.

Leslie wrote:

I was able to click on the photo once to enlarge it and I see what you mean by all the back-budding happening. How cool is that?

Hi Leslie,

The tiny green branches were actually there already. THat was one of the reasons I grabbed this one: It already has some green close to the trunk. So by taking off most of the branches, I still had a little bit of 'engine' left over.

The back budding seems to have started at the lower part of the trunk: Loads of swelling there. Oddly enough, it seems as if some of the higher banches are struggling big time. The thin branches there seem dried out, and the needles are not as glossy as I would want them to be. Ah well.. it is still raining. Never seen such a wet summer. Perfect weather for the poor tree to recover a little. Will post pictures again in a few weeks.

Hi J,

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and share details of your trees' progressions. I am learning so much.

Leslie

A little update. A wide range of asmller buds have started to break open. So today I made the first bark-cuts in the sections that will opened up in spring. Also, I remove some 500 young newly formed side-branches.

I'm glad to know it's growing again! Is it spring in your neck of the woods, or is it budding for some other reason?

Thanks for the update, J! Sounds like the tree is progessing as it should? My goodness!...How long did it take you to remove 500 new side branches! What tool did you use to remove them? Pssstt!...Were you able to *take care* of the grub problem in the root ball?

Ummmm...are you forgetting something? I believe in an earlier post you promised photos??? lol! If and when you have time, I would like to see your bark cutting work...please?

Hm.. Leslie, upon your request, here 2 shots I took today of this tree. Mind, it is a slow-long term project. It might be another year before it will get near a living tree again..

The full plant


A close-up showing the happily growing branches

BassandBonsai wrote:

I'm glad to know it's growing again! Is it spring in your neck of the woods, or is it budding for some other reason?

It is late late summer here in Western Europe. The tree is breaking buds because of the massive trimming I gave is & because.. Taxus likes to grow in late summer too . Sort of taking advantage of the warm days and plenty of moisture. Add a load of fertilizer I gave it after cutting it back and there you go. Growth!

Hi J...thank you for the new photos. Lots of new growth popping out everywhere! Excellent! The tree has a really interesting crotch formation...
will you be making deadwood of that? Providing you are able to illiminate the root grub problem, you have a great looking tree here.

BonsairEmpire on Facebook just posted a nice video showing what one can do with a plant this size: