Yew Hedging | Rootballed

Large Yew | Rootballed Plants | Delivered by Mail Order from the Nursery with a 1 Year Guarantee

These rootballed yew trees are the largest sizes that you can order from us. They are the nearest thing you can get to an instant yew hedge. They can also be planted singly as specimens. Yew leaves are evergreen needles that clip neatly into a formal hedge and regrow from hard pruning. Yew will grow in any well drained soil and it tolerates quite deep shade.

Rootballed Yew hedge plants are only delivered during winter (Nov-March).

Choosing a size: With big, comparatively expensive plants like these rootballed Yew, it's really up to your budget to decide which size you want. If you need to spend less money, you can also buy Yew in smaller sizes here. Smaller plants are cheaper and will make equally good hedging.
All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Spacing Rootballed Yew plants in a hedge:
These large Yew plants have quite wide rootballs, so they should be planted 60-75cms apart along the hedgerow.

General description of Yew plants:
Yew is an extremely hardy, disease resistant tree. It is actually a conifer, but unlike other conifers it produces red, berry like fruit instead of pine cones. A yew hedge can be clipped and pruned hard if necessary: it makes new shoots from old wood, so it will always recover from any mistakes with the shears. Old, overgrown yew hedges that have been allowed to become sparse at the base can be cut back to encourage dense new growth.
Yew will grow anywhere with decent soil drainage. It should tolerate occasional waterlogging, but if you are concerned that your soil is too damp, we suggest holly as a good evergreen alternative.

History & uses of Taxus baccata
To our ancestors, the Yew tree was a god of death and rebirth. It must have seemed immortal to them, living as it does for thousands of years, growing in the dark heart of the forest or on freezing mountain slopes. Old yew trees tend to spread outwards and slump a bit as their heavy branches pull open the centre of tree, creating a thick, wide evergreen canopy quite close to the ground. It is easy to imagine groups of stone age humans sheltering under such foreboding trees, fending off packs of wolves and bears.
The gloomy spaces under these Yews were places of pagan worship that housed the wizened, gnarled face of the god itself; a massive, brooding creature that did not suffer cold or time. The red flesh of Yew's fruit would have been a nourishing treasure to our ancestors in winter, but anyone who bit down on the seed inside could have been paralysed and possibly killed, which surely added to the awe that this unique tree inspired.
Yew is good firewood, but it needs to be split and then seasoned for several years before it will burn well.

Growing Yew:
Yew will grow in any well drained conditions. It tolerates shade, cold winds, frost pockets and it will grow quite close to the sea.
Yew will not grow well if the site is too damp or if there is too much waterlogging in winter. It will tolerate a certain amount of seasonal flooding, as long as it passes quickly.

Prepare your site before planting:
Native hedge plants like Yew are very tough. The only essential preparation is to kill the weeds in a strip a metre wide along the planting site: improving the soil should not be necessary. If your soil is poor and dry, then digging in some well rotted manure and/or compost is worthwhile.

Watch our video on how to plant a garden hedge for full details. The plants in this video are delivered pot-grown, but planting out bareroot stock is essentially the same.
Remember to water establishing plants during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Hedge Planting Accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Roundup weed killer.
You can buy a hedge planting pack with sheets of mulch fabric and pegs to hold it down.
Rabbit and deer won't eat Yew, so it doesn't need a plastic guard.
If your soil quality is poor, we recommend using mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of new trees and shrubs.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.

After you plant a hedge, the most important thing to do is water it in dry weather. If you didn't use mulch of some kind, you will also need to weed around the hedge. Both of these will be necessary for at least a year after planting.
Like all evergreen plants, Yew is active and using water throughout the year. This means that if the weather is dry in winter, your establishing plants need to be watered.

Trimming Formal hedge plants:
Your Yew doesn't need any clipping at all in its first year. From the winter after planting onwards, your young hedge should be trimmed lightly once a year, until it is mature. When it is fully grown, you can clip it at anytime.
To help your plants to grow quickly, do not trim their central, leading stems until they have reached the desired height. After you cut the tops off the central stems, the plants will grow noticeable more slowly.

Special notes on caring for Yew hedges:
Yew is a very tough hedge plant that shouldn't need special attention once it has established. If you didn't use a mulch fabric, it is beneficial to mulch around the base of the hedge each year with well rotted manure or compost.

Hygiene & Diseases:
Dead, damaged or diseased wood can be pruned off as soon as it appears.
Disinfect your pruning tools between every cut if there is any sign of disease.
Burn or dispose of any diseased material, do not compost it.

Read our full terms and conditions here.

Delivery: The basic delivery charge for orders of bareroot plants is £9.49 + vat, which increases to £12.55 + vat if you add any pot-grown plants, standard trees or fruit trees to the order.
Because couriers sometimes experience delays, we schedule delivery by week, not by day. Therefore, please plan your planting day for the weekend at the end of the delivery week or for the week following delivery, at the earliest.
You can choose the delivery week that suits you during checkout and we will email you the day before your plants are due to arrive.

Payment: We do not charge your card until we begin to prepare your order for packing.

Guarantee: If any plants die within a year, we will replace them. We only ask that you follow our planting & growing instructions and sent us clear photographs of the dead plants in situ, so we can help to make sure that the replacement plants succeed. You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.

Please note that our guarantee is void if there is a hosepipe ban in your area: your newly planted hedging must be watered in dry weather while it is establishing. The best way to water is very thoroughly every few days: at least once a week if there is no heavy rain.

Our nursery has been supplying container grown and bareroot hedging plants to gardeners, farmers and town planners since 1949. Our website started in 2003, so we do understand the concerns that you may have about buying hedging plants online. If any of your plants are damaged when they arrive or if you are otherwise not satisfied with your order after you inspect it, please repackage it and contact us. We will give you a refund or send replacements and send a courier to come and collect the unwanted plants.

Your 12 Month Guarantee

If any of the plants that you buy from our nursery die within a year of delivery, we will replace them.
You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.

We do ask for clear photos of the plants in the soil, both taking in the planting area and close up. These will help us to work out what went wrong so we can give you the right advice for looking after your replacements.

The most important thing to do with establishing plants is to water them in dry weather. Water very thoroughly, but not too frequently: allow the top 2 inches of soil to dry out before you water again. In hot summer weather, this should mean that you are watering 1 to 3 times per week, depending on your site's drainage and exposure to wind and sun.
If there is heavy rain, that counts as a watering for your plants. If there is only very light rain during hot weather, this probably won't be of much use to your plants and they will still need watering.

Weeding is also very important; we strongly recommend using a mulch mat (for trees) or mulch fabric (for hedges) if weeding your new plants will be impractical.

Outside your 1 Year Guarantee period?

If your plants die or get sick after their first year, you are still welcome to take some photos and send them in: we will still be happy to give you what advice we can.
We can't make any promises, but if you want to buy replacements from us, give us a call and we'll see if we can arrange a discount for you.

Place an order for £250 excluding VAT and delivery and we deliver it for FREE!

Bare-root Plants are only delivered in the winter season, from November to March. Pot grown plants can be delivered all year round

Advantages of Bare-root plants:

You pay less for the same size plants.

You can carry and plan them easily.

You only plant them in winter, so they need less maintenance after planting. The rain will water them for their first few months.

You get the biggest selection: Many trees are not sold pot-grown.

They are "asleep" in winter - this is the best time to transplant any tree.

They use fewer fertilisers & fungicides, less water and fuel in their production & delivery.

Advantages of Pot Grown plants:

Pot grown plants can be delivered & planted all year round.

Plants with tender roots & larger specimens must be delivered in pots.

Plants in pots can be kept for months longer if there is a delay in planting.

Our Advice to You:
If you can't wait to get planting, order Pot grown plants now.
If you are not in a hurry, order bare-root plants for delivery this winter. Simply add them to your basket and choose a winter delivery date that suits you during checkout. This will reserve your plants before they sell out.
We won't charge you until the day before delivery, so cancelling your order is always easy.

If you are only ordering chemicals and other small items, delivery is £3.50

Our delivery charge for most bareroot plants is £9.49 + VAT.

If your order contains any standard sized trees, fruit trees or pot-grown plants, then the delivery charge is £12.55 + VAT in TOTAL.

If you live in the Scottish Highlands or the Isle of Wight, there will be an extra charge of £15 + VAT on top of the appropriate basic charge, as listed above.

If your order is over £250 exc. VAT, there will be no delivery charge.

If you are uncertain, just add items to your basket which will calculate the basic shipping charge for you.