On Ebay last week I saw an advert that a taxus nursery was being dug up. Interested parties to show up on Saturday to buy dirt cheap trees. So I went and saw they were with way too few people; One guy in a digger can uproot more trees than 3 helpers can lug off for sale / containers. So I started helping out, as I was interested in specific trees anyway (doot taper, wide nebari). After a few hours I had my target number to stumps (5) and decided to pack up and leave. Come paying time, I was allowed to take them for free as thank you for my help. So I now have some great starters. 3 are interesting. 2 need as much carving is the well-known Graham Potter Yew.

Just before clear-trimming the roots, after course rootbal reduction & washing:


Tree 1


Tree 2


Tree 3


Recovery area

I like that last one most. Looking forward to news about its development.

of course. The last one is by far the best

1 dead
2 wobbling
1 (the big sumo below) undecided
3 have broken buds and will probably live

sounds like a great way to spend a Saturday, all in all.

Really hope they pull thru for you mate, fingers crossed.

leatherback wrote:

of course. The last one is by far the best

I'm curious as to why the last one is the best. I'm still learning so I would love some insight to your opinion.

Craig wrote:

Really hope they pull thru for you mate, fingers crossed.

yep here too

simplysaid wrote:

leatherback wrote:

of course. The last one is by far the best

I'm curious as to why the last one is the best. I'm still learning so I would love some insight to your opinion.

Very fat base, very compact tree, lots of low branches, that are thick enough to keep, but not too thick to remove - so lots of branches to choose from for the future design and lots of options for carving.

In addition to what Auk just posted on why I think it is the best of the lot. There is no need for carving. There is no single cut larger than about 2cm diameter. So each cut can be made into a realistic yin. Taxus of this thickness normally are very tall. This one was just a very wide bush (THink it was about 4meter diameter).

Still hoping for a recovery. Still no further budding. Keep on spraying twice a day with this dry weather. no watering at all besides that.