Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Yew Tree Resilience? (Pics Enclosed)

visitervisiter Posts: 4
in Plants

Hi all,

I have a yew tree at the back of my garden which has grown to about four feet wide and I wanted to ask someone how resilient they were to big scale cut backs?

I don’t want to kill it, however I was hoping to recover a bit of ground behind my shed for storage so if it was feasible I would like to be fairly “brutal” as a one off and then trim from there.

Any feedback gratefully received.






Posts

  • Cambridgerose12Cambridgerose12 Posts: 1,134
    It copes OK with a hard cut-back. I'd be inclined to be a bit kind to the rest of it--not too much clipping on the sides and top, and a dose of fertiliser. They sometimes have to do this in old gardens. 
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited April 2021
    Yew is incredibly resilient to being cut hard back. I know of ancient yews some 20+ feet in height in a churchyard that have been virtually stooled and now, 25 years on are bigger than they were before. 
     😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • visitervisiter Posts: 4
    Great - thanks for the replies. Really appreciate it so on with the cutting!
Sign In or Register to comment.