DeGroot Spire from an upright yew taxus x media

[IllinoisSam]

So, a year ago I bought this for $11.50, which was half price, at HD. I figured Peter Chan works on yews, so why not?

Well, obviously I know nothing about yews and this variety was about worthless as a bonsai. I actually came to hate it. The pine bark soil in the nursery pot was so light it kept toppling over with just a slight breeze. And then, there was no way to style it into anything, so I ignored it, secretly hoping to kill it. I watered it only occasionally and when the wind knocked it over for the umtheenth time I just left it on it side. For the whole winter!

Then a couple of weeks ago I came across the term DeGroot's Spire. I had never heard of it. I'm still not sure what it is, but at least I could give this thing a name. Mr. Google only turned up a couple of DeGroot's Spires, and they were made from Thuja Occidentalis arbor vitae. But, this was close enough. So, I put it into a heavier pot and started pruning and wiring, and this is as far as I came up for now. I still am not particularly fond of it, but at least it has a name.

 

[stubmle]

'Degroot's Spire' is a specific cultivar of Thuja occidentalis. Since this is a yew, it can't be Degroot's Spire- wrong species.

Looks like there are quite a few upright varieties of yew out there. Without the original nursery tag it's impossible to say which one this is with certainty, though I'd bet it's most likely Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata' as that's one of the most common upright varieties. I know my local orange big-box stocks them, so it stands to reason yours would too.

Regardless, yew is often good material. This one certainly seems to want to live!

 

[IllinoisSam]

'Degroot's Spire' is a specific cultivar of Thuja occidentalis. Since this is a yew, it can't be Degroot's Spire- wrong species.

Looks like there are quite a few upright varieties of yew out there. Without the original nursery tag it's impossible to say which one this is with certainty, though I'd bet it's most likely Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata' as that's one of the most common upright varieties. I know my local orange big-box stocks them, so it stands to reason yours would too.

Regardless, yew is often good material. This one certainly seems to want to live!

Well, I guess my parade got rained a little. But it still looks a little better than laying on it's side under the bench. The sticker on the side called it a taxus x media.

 

[stubmle]

Well, I guess my parade got rained a little. But it still looks a little better than laying on it's side under the bench. The sticker on the side called it a taxus x media.

Didn't mean to rain on your parade! I'm just a stickler for nomenclature, no offense meant.

Taxus x media is a cross of two species of Taxus. It's well-suited to bonsai cultivation since it can take heavy pruning, though it does grow a bit slowly like most yews. There are a lot of x media cultivars out there- yours does seem to have a more upright habit, but it could just be young enough to not show a different habit yet.

If you don't like the upright look, you could cut back some of those longer branches or sub-trunks and let it regrow more horizontally, though personally I'd let the roots recover before I pruned more just yet. Yew wood gets quite hard when it matures, so if you want to put movement in the existing branches you should do that while they are young & pliable.

 

[IllinoisSam]

Didn't mean to rain on your parade! I'm just a stickler for nomenclature, no offense meant.

Taxus x media is a cross of two species of Taxus. It's well-suited to bonsai cultivation since it can take heavy pruning, though it does grow a bit slowly like most yews. There are a lot of x media cultivars out there- yours does seem to have a more upright habit, but it could just be young enough to not show a different habit yet.

If you don't like the upright look, you could cut back some of those longer branches or sub-trunks and let it regrow more horizontally, though personally I'd let the roots recover before I pruned more just yet. Yew wood gets quite hard when it matures, so if you want to put movement in the existing branches you should do that while they are young & pliable.

Taking another at the tag, it says Taxus x media Hicksil