How to Make a Yew Bonsai (A VERY Detailed Walkthrough)

Today we're going to be making a bonsai out of a yew tree. I'll talk you through my step-by-step process for styling a bonsai that I've developed over the past 10 years. Let's do some bonsai. So what we have here is a yew, a tapsis. And this is a lovely species for doing bonsai with. It's got really nice evergreen foliage. It back buds really well, which is great for developing bonsai. Now, the first thing we need to do when we're styling a bonsai is work out where our front is going to be. And the front of a bonsai tree is the side that is going to be most appealing to the viewer. Now, there's three things you need to think about when you're choosing your front. First of all, we want to look at the best base of the tree. The base of a bonsai is really important because it sets the tone of the entire composition. If you have a strong, grounded base, it can really let you create strong degrees of asymmetry in your design. After the base, you want to look at the trunk line and the branching to see which side they look best from and which branches are going to become main players in the design of the bonsai. And finally, you want to look at any special features. And that's going to be things like really interesting bark, deadwood, things like that. So let's have a look at this tree. Starting at the base, here we've got some interesting roots. This is a root here. It's kind of covered with soil. Another one here. And then this really big one at the back. Something you'll often find in bonsai is if you find a nice front from one angle, if you turn the tree around 180 degrees, you can find something just as nice, if not better, on the other side. So here we have, again, that strong root coming a bit more to the fore. So two really good options for the front here. Okay, so I think we've got a nice base. Next, I'm going to look at the trunk line. So this tree has been wired once in its life, and you can see it's got some interesting movement already coming up the trunk. And we just want to look at where we think that's going to be best. I appreciate it's going to be hard on camera because of the foliage we've got at the moment, but this is nice here. You can see the trunk comes up, and then we've got a nice branch snaking down here. We could make something nice out of that. And then the trunk continues up here to this apex region, top of the tree. Lots to work with. Finally, special features. I don't think this tree has any, to be honest. It's a young piece of material. It was just a really cheap plant from a garden center that I bought about five years ago. I think this is where we're going to go for our front. So we've got this nice base. We've got some good trunk movement coming off at an angle from the base. And this can enable us to have an asymmetrical design for the tree, meaning the tree is growing off more in one direction than the other. And that really makes for an interesting design in Bonsai. So after choosing our front, we want to go through and try and get a bit more visibility of the trunk line. This branch is way too long, so we need to shorten it. It's got some really nice internal growth here. I'm going to cut back to these small branches here just to get us started. Here we have a nice group of two branches to cut back to to shorten that branch. This branch will be what's known as the return branch. So when you're pushing the asymmetry over that side, you want something to balance it out on the other side. So this is our balance branch, our return branch. Okay, so I'm starting to see more of the trunk line of the tree and how that's going to play in the design. To come up from here, this then starts coming back away from the viewer. And then we're up into this region here where we've got a bit of a twist and turn. I'm going to want to bring this down to compress the height of the tree. And I'm going to want to move this branch down and out of the way. And equally these branches coming down, down, down in that sort of traditional Bonsai style. Just because this tree is currently moving away from the viewer doesn't mean we need to keep it that way. When I come to repot this tree next spring, I can choose what angle I put this tree into the pot at. So what I'm going to do is find some wooden blocks. I'm going to try and put this tree at the angle I want it to be potted at next time. And then we can style it from that angle. And that'll just help us with the design process. So we've brought it forward with a slight change of angle in the tree. I'm also going to apply some thick copper wire to the trunk to bring this as far forward as I can. But before I put the wire on, I'm going to keep coming through and try and keep pruning back to the desired silhouette of the tree. This return branch is still too long. We have a nice little branch slit here and one at the back here. I think this whole section is too long so I'm going to cut it back. I'll cut it back in stages to see what it looks like. Now with that cut we have the option of using this as the new leader of the branch. But as you can see, the taper of the branch is really poor now. It becomes thick, thick, thick, thick, thick. And then this would be thin from there. So instead, if we prune back to... Get this out of the way so you can see. If we prune back to these two branches, one here and one here, we come from thick to slightly thinner and slightly thinner. Instead of that really abrupt jump to just a twig. There we are. That will help make the design feel more natural. We can straighten this into this gap here with some wire. And then this branch can reach forward towards the viewer. Sort of like a hug, an embrace. You want to think of your bonsai tree as standing there welcoming the viewer for a hug. And that's really engaging. It brings the viewer into the tree. Okay, next we're going to deal with this branch here. What I want is for this to be wired down. But again, it's too long for the current design. So I'm going to prune back some of the strong tips. This branch at the back here is feeling pretty good. And then we've got this one here, which we can wire down as well. But I think the length on that is fine for now. And with this apex branch coming down here, I think this is going to be too long for the design. But we've got these nice bits of growth up the top, so we can cut back to them. Okay, so we can see the tree is already starting to look a lot more like a bonsai with those big prunes that we've done. I'm going to come through the major branches now. Clean off any excess growth, any weak branches we don't want, any crotch growth. And that's going to allow us to apply our wire cleanly, so that we can shape the tree. So here we have some new growth coming off the trunk. We already have some really strong branching coming here. So I'm just going to pluck this growth off, because it's not going to be useful for us. Some weak growth here. So in here we can see we have a branch coming down. And in between where the branch is growing and the main trunk, we have this growth. And this is what we call crotch growth. And this is going to get in the way of the branch developing, it's going to get in the way of us wiring. So we're going to cut that out. Okay, also here we've got a branch that's growing down from the arc of a curve. That's going to reduce the impact of that curve over time. And it's also going to weaken over time, because it's going to be shaded from the sun and growing in the wrong direction. So that comes out. And then on top here we've got too many branches for the formation of our apex. Generally you just want two branches at any one point. So here we have what is the continuation of the trunk line. This is going to be an important branch, so we'll keep that. And then we need one more to form the apex. It's probably going to be this one here on top. It's got lots of nice side branching. This one feels a bit too strong, so I'm going to prune that out. Okay, so this other branch is going to be a nice dropping branch. But it's overloaded here and needs cleaned up a bit. All this back budding is really good and a sign of a strong and healthy tree. But we have too much to use. So I'm going to get rid of these ones that are right next to the junction of the tree. This is where we're going to come in with wire. Plucking off these shoots on the underside of the branch. And then also ones that are coming straight off the top. They're going to grow much more vigorously than those on the bottom or the sides. So they need to come away before they grow too strong for the tree. We also have this branch here which is coming straight off the bottom. The main branch. Instead of pruning that away, as a lot of people would, I think I'm going to wire this to try and use it in the design. But we'll see, it's growth isn't that strong compared to the rest of the tree because it's growing in that downward orientation. Hopefully we can change that by adding a bit of wire. I'm now going to apply some strong wire to the big branches of the tree to try and move them into position and hold them there. This is often referred to as structural wiring. That's putting the bigger pieces of the bonsai into place. Once we've done our structural wiring we can then come onto each branch in turn and do the detail wiring where we wire up the smaller sub-branches. When you're wiring bonsai, it's essential that your wire has an anchor point to hold onto. If I just wired up a branch on its own, it would still be able to move as the tree grows. One of the most common ways to anchor wire is to wire two branches together. So that's what we're going to be doing here. By wiring two branches together, as those two branches move in opposition to each other when they're growing, that can tighten the wire and make that hold stronger. When you're applying wire to a branch, you want to try and come in where there's an obtuse angle to the branch. We've got one here, obtuse meaning greater than 90 degrees as opposed to acute, which would be shorter than 90 degrees. Wherever possible, it's not essential, but wherever possible you want to be coming in on the opposite side of where you want to move the branch. We want this branch to be bent downwards. Ideally, we want the wire to be coming in on top of the branch. The first thing that you need to do is take your thumb, stick it on top of that wire and hold it really hard in place. It's really important that this wire stays in the same place as we're wiring it. We don't want it moving around. I'm then going to wind the wire around the branch aiming for an angle between 45 and 60 degrees between turns. As you're coming through, make sure you don't crush any of the foliage that's underlying it. Do what you can. Now I'm maintaining this hold here to keep this tight and I'm going to grab onto that next turn to keep that tight as we work our way along the branch. Again, repositioning my hands to hold on tightly to the most recent turns that we've done. Now I want to continue this wire down the trunk of the tree and onto the next branch. At all times, I'm going to be continuing to hold onto the wire to keep it tight to the branch. Again, we want this branch to be moving downwards so I'm going to approach the wire on top. We have an old wire scar here so it's a good idea to avoid wiring into that because that can disrupt the healing of that wire scar. You can get some pliers to help you twist that. I'm going to finish there because if I continue to bend this over I'm going to crush this little branch here which I think is going to be a useful little branch. Now with wire applied to these branches, I'm going to bend them into position. I'm going to start with this one, the lower of the two. It's largely in a position that we want it in already. I just want to bend it downwards ever so slightly. I'm looking for the tissue on top to stretch. The outside of a curve when you're bending is where the tissue is under the most strain and that's where you can get breakages. That's where you want to keep an eye on. As you see tissue starting to tear, that's when you need to stop bending. That's when you're approaching a break. Now this next one, same thing again. It helps to hold a thumb where you want the bend to happen. For us, that's at the shoulder of the branch. Then I'm going to hold onto the wire where possible and bend this downwards. If we come in close here, you can see the tissue just stretching there. That's good. That's the perfect place to stop. That branch will heal up nicely in that position. I just want to angle it outwards ever so slightly. The next structural wire I need to apply is onto this apex branch up here. I'm going to twin it with this branch here. This one is going to take the most movement. It's kind of angling upwards. We want to bring that all the way down. The branch is very mobile, so we can do that without risking a break or anything. With this apex as well, I want to bring it forwards if possible just to help with that angling of the tree towards the viewer. I mentioned that you need to enter a branch where possible the opposite from where you're bending. Ideally, we'd be on top of this branch and bending it downwards. You can see there's an acute angle here. That's going to be hard to get good contact with the wire and the branch. We're going to need to approach it from the underside instead. Because there's a wire scar on top here, we want to avoid going over like this. Instead, we're going to come around the back and under, and we can bypass that scar. I'm holding tight with my hand, keeping contact with the branch and the trunk. I'm just going to first get a turn or two onto the trunk to hold this long bit of wire still. You can see why you need to anchor wire. Because if you don't have this wire anchored, you can see how it'll just flop around. We need to lock it into place and lift it out. One of the benefits of using copper wire, copper wire is harder to apply than aluminium. Both kinds of wire work absolutely fine. Copper has the benefit of what's called work hardening, which means as you bend it, it becomes less malleable, less bendable. Basically, you bend it into place and it's going to hold that shape, which is perfect for bonsai, because it means your branch is more likely to hold that shape. Aluminium doesn't work hardened. It's a softer wire, which has its benefits as well. Copper is going to be really good for us here. Now I'm going to work my way up the trunk, again making sure I've got good contact. We've now applied structural wire to each of the branches. I've given them a downward angle, and I'm aiming for the same downward angle at each branch junction to add consistency to the design. If you have, coming from your branch, one branch going sharply downwards, one branch horizontal, that can be really distracting to the viewer. In general, it's better to try and have consistency with your branches. Next, I'm going to come through the tree, do a bit more pruning and detail wiring on the branches to make some nice bonsai pads. These small branches here, we're not going to wire. We're going to let them grow. Same with this one. I'm pulling off needles here to make it easier to apply the wire. I think all we need to do is wire these two branches together. Again, even though it's detail work instead of structural wiring, we're still going to follow that two-branch principle. We'll wire these two branches together. A good way to know if your wire is thick enough to bend a branch is to hold the wire a couple of inches below the tip and push against the branch that you want to bend. If your wire bends, as it has here, then that wire is too thin. If you have a thicker branch and a thinner branch, then you want to apply wire that's thick enough to work for the thicker branch. If you don't think that you can confidently apply thicker wire to this thinner branch, then you might want to consider just using two wires. You can apply a smaller gauge of wire twice, and that can give you the same holding power without potentially damaging the bark by applying thick wire. I just want to be careful that I don't crush any of these side branches as I'm coming through. This is going to come forward into here to make sure this is wired down. And I think I'm going to use a smaller gauge of wire to finish off this branch here. I'm doing my utmost not to damage any of these delicate buds as I'm wiring here. You can definitely do more harm than good if you get overly ambitious with your wiring. If you're a beginner and this kind of wiring intimidates you, the only way to get better is to practice. Practice, practice, practice. And you don't have to use your trees to do it. You can cut branches off trees in your garden, like big trees, they don't have to be one size, and you can use those to practice on. And that way you can improve your wiring skills without having to risk your bonsai. I'm not sure that this spindly branch here is really going to stand the test of time. I'm going to keep it for now. This next branch probably still has too much foliage on it, some need to be removed. These ones that are growing straight upwards are unlikely to be useful. And if they were the only buds on the tree, it would be totally fine to keep them there and then wire them laterally if we need them. But since we've got so many other buds and branches pushing, I'm happy enough to prune them away. Now, I'm not going to need this big long bit of thick wire here, so I'll cut that back. And then what we need to do here, probably wire these two together. Need some wire on this branch as well. And that'll be that really. Fantastic. So I'm going to do that same thing to the other branches of the tree, and then we'll talk through how we're going to wire this apex. Because that's one of the really difficult things for beginners to get right when they're starting in bonsai. If you've enjoyed this video or found it useful, please let me know by hitting the like button below. It really makes a massive difference to the channel and I really appreciate your support. Now let's talk about this apex. So the trunk I've wired up to twist and turn up here, and then I've dropped it down here. So the trunk eventually becomes a downward dropping branch, similar to these branches here. But at the point it's dropped down, I've left this branch coming up. And so this is going to form the apex of the tree. We're going to put some wire on it, we're going to twist it round, and lay it down flat, so it makes a flat piece of foliage on top of the tree, and that'll be our apex. So there we are. We'll repot this next spring into a smaller container and start to refine the growth over the next few years. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I'll answer them for you. And now that you know how to make a bonsai, you're going to want to watch this next video that lets you know how to maintain them.