Hey everyone,
So my local nursery had a big sale on yew (this ones a taxus nigra I believe) and I figured cheap material is always best to learn on 
. So dont get me wrong, this piece is no award winner lol. Also bear in mind, the pot I placed it in is very temporary I just wanted to get it out of the burlap. I didnt do any significant root work. Just cleaned down the soil a tiny bit to uncover the nebari and choose the front. I opened up the sides of the packed clay that it is in as well, man that heavy clay makes me nervous 
. So at this point I have the defining branch on the right set and am trying to decide what to do next. Iāve committed to using the right of the two taller branches as my continuation of the trunk. Iām debating on whether to keep the left trunk going in an upward direction and create a twin trunk design, or bring it down as a lower branch, in which case the lowest branch on the left may have to be turned into a jin or removed. I may make decisions in the mean time but Iām very open to input. Iāll post progress pictures as I go along.
So hereās the first styling mostly complete. Dont think I want to take any more off until it back buds. I think I would like the apex to be a few inches taller but overall Iām pretty happy. Cant wait to repot in the spring!
I really like what you done so far! You have (or created) some nice movement in the main trunk. You mentioned not being sure how to handle the left trunk. Personally i donāt think it adds much to the current design. It seems to have a fairly straight run and competes with the primary line for attention. When i start at the nebari and scan up, my eye just follows that line straight up to the jin. Iād mess around with some white paper or photoshop and see what happens if you reduce it to a lower branchā¦ FWIW, Iām a novice so take the comments for what theyāre worth!
I totally agree with you. Iām a novice too so I donāt take any criticism personally! Iāve stared at it quite a bit since itās first styling and I think my first goal is to let the main trunk apex run for a year or so to gain height and thicken. Depending how the tree responds, I then want to make the decision on whether the height of the left trunk should be shortened or left as is. I really donāt like the jin at the top of the left trunk so that will probably go at the very least. As the left trunk back buds I also want to compress the overall silhouette to push the composition to the right. When I styled it, I didnāt have a heavy enough gauge wire to put any interesting movement into the left trunk so in the spring I want to try out the 6 guage wire I just bought from the Mirai store 
and see if adding movement increases interest. With that being said I could still see it being shortened further in the near future. I bought a training pot for it the other day so Iām really looking forward to getting it out of that gigantic nursery container too. I appreciate your input, Iāll post an update in the spring after the repot and wiring.
Hello, just curious if you have an update on this? Interested. 
Hey! So itāll be hard to get a pic because itās partially buried in snow but the tree is doing well. This past spring I cut off the second trunk I was debating keeping (left a few inches for dieback and options for deadwood) but I havenāt done much more then that. The tree didnāt push as vigorously as I had hoped last spring so I didnāt do any other pruning the whole year. I think the massive repot from a giant burlap bag and cutting it back at the same time set the tree back. However the product of not touching it much the whole year and fertilizing regularly was an insane amount of back buds. My plan is to restyle this spring and cut all/most of the branches back pretty hard. Iām actually considering using the current ādefining branchā as the new continuation of the trunk and having a smaller, condensed and more leaning tree. If I can dig it out of the snow Iāll post a pic. If not Iāll post an update after I make my decisions in the spring. Cheers!