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Mail Order Plant Experts - Est. 194916/10/2025
Yew is quite a pricey plant, especially the bigger sizes over 80cm tall that need to be delivered as rootballs, rather than more cost-effective bareroot plants.
If you were going to get a free hedge and based your choice on saving the most money, Yew would be a top contender.
As you know, we are yew hedging suppliers (amongst a few other plants!).
You might well guess that our friends and family often try to blag a few plants from us.
If they cook us a nice enough dinner, we might even give them a deal on some.
So we've seen a few yew hedges come up in their gardens since 1947 and we want to say a few of things about them:
Yew is a fairly fast growing plant when it is young.
It will easily grow 30cms per year, more if it is in full sun all day and well cared for.
Yew will begin to grow slowly when the growing tips of the central, leading stems are cut.
With a young yew hedge, simply leave the tops alone and give the sides just the lightest trim once each winter.
When the hedge reaches full size, trim the tips for the first time.
Yew trees need a reasonably well drained soil to grow. They do not like bogs or riversides.
However, they will grow in any soil that isn't really wet for most of the year - some winter flooding is fine.
Yew loves heavy clay - it grows beautifully on it in most places. You will only be unable to grow Yew if the site traps water for long periods.
When planting in clay, do not dig out a trench and fill it with topsoil.
Simply make a slit in the soil and use the spade to sweep the roots gently down into it. Firm it closed again.
Your hedge's lifespan is ~4000 years.
Unlike the other lush evergreen conifers, an old Yew hedge can be hard pruned if necessary, and it will regrow beautifully. Note that hungry deer are partial to fresh young Yew shoots, so you will need to protect your hedge while it regenerates if they are around.
Our guarantee does not cover your Yew tree's failure to become the world tree and sustain the separation between the nine planes of existence, but if it does turn out that way, please let us know in the comments below and send us a photo.
Yggdrasil, perhaps the original windy tree, may also be an evergreen ash, and we don't know where you could find those without a lot of self-sacrifice...
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Comments (27)
Add a commentHi Megan,
Pruning a tree into a topiary will reduce its root growth, and Yew is slow growing once you cut the central stem, so a Yew taking over your garden is not a problem for our lifetimes. A new build wall is not at risk anyway, if it were old and crumbly then it could be an issue.
Thank you for your comment. It’s probably best to get in contact with your supplier. We don’t sell this particular variety at present, and cannot really offer any further advice on it confidently. Kind regards Ashridge.
Thanks for your comment. Bluntly – you are wasting your time growing the yew in pots. They will ultimately do very much better grown in the ground. Water until they are established and growing away, and keep them weed free and they will grow very much faster than in pots. If you want to trim the side branches, do be careful not to do so too early or too much as all trees need their leaves to breathe and reducing their foliage reduces their vigour. There are a lot of resources on the internet about what to do here. As for timescales, 10 years might see some of them in the 3-5 metre range (growth rates will be uneven).
Hope this helps
Hi Janet,
It depends a bit on which flavour of yew you have there. Yew is a big tree in nature, but comes in a range of low growing cultivars. We don’t grow them, and I am not really familiar with them, but I have seen pictures of Taxus Densa and T. Repandens that are short and wide bushes.
With that being said, it doesn’t matter much, regular Taxus baccata can be clipped and pruned into a restricted form: it’s a famous hedge plant! Keep it chopped into an ornamental shape if you like.
As for how their roots will interact, I can’t say. It’s possible that many decades from now, when your garden and mine are free of our fleeting concerns again, the Yew’s tough roots will bully the Magnolia’s roots, and the Magnolia’s ability to produce great flowers may decline. Or maybe they will be fine neighbours.
Hi Shane,
Could you give me a bit more info, please: what sort of foundation does the bin cupboard brick extension have? How old is the brick extension and the house? How wide an area do you want to hide? What is the soil there like in terms of fertility and drainage? And are you sure that a deep dark Yew is the best visual fit for the front of your house, and not something brighter, perhaps with variegated leaves?
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