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arlene_82

What to expect from a recently heavily pruned yew?

Hi all,

I tried an experiment this past weekend on a yew hedge (consisting of two plants of taxus media densiformis) on the southeast facing side of the house. I understand this is not a good time of year to do a very hard prune, but I went ahead anyway and removed about 50% of each plant, going for a limbed up look with all the green at the top third of the bush. I know it's not for everyone, but I quite like the look of the open branches and texture of the bark over the boxy green blob it was before. Based on what I've read here and elsewhere online, yews are: A) Virtually indestructible, and B) Should be given a hard prune sometime between March and June only. So my question is, given the lateness of the season, what can I expect from this shrub? (I did go into this with the mindset that if it doesn't make it through the winter then I have no issue replacing it with something different in the spring.)

I also have a much larger and more conspicuous yew hedge that I would like to give the same treatment, but I was planning on holding off on that one until next spring. However, if the worst consequence I can expect is that the yews I did prune may take a bit longer to show new growth I may go ahead and tackle the other one now as well.

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