Overgrown Yews: Prune to Bare Wood or Simply Remove and Replace?

Joseph Pacocha

3 minutes ago

2 min read

Many Chicagoland properties enjoy healthy, mature evergreen shrubs such as spreading yews. These durable plants can provide years of dependable greenery and screening, but their size can eventually become a challenge—especially when they have been left untouched for many years.

Large yew growing well over edge of sidewalk

As dense and dependable as spreading yews can be, they will continue to grow. When regular trimming and selective pruning are overlooked, a once appropriately sized evergreen can eventually overwhelm its planting bed, cover windows, crowd walkways, or simply become much larger than originally intended.

Multiple mature yews growing well past their original foundation bed space

At that point, property owners generally have a decision to make.

Option 1: Reduce and Rejuvenate

One advantage of established yews is their ability to tolerate substantial pruning. Unlike many evergreen shrubs, healthy yews can often produce new growth from older woody portions of the plant.

This means an overgrown yew can sometimes be cut back well beyond its existing green foliage and into the woody interior of the shrub.

The tradeoff is appearance and patience.

Immediately following severe rejuvenation pruning, the plant may look quite bare. In our experience, heavily pruned yews can require several years—and sometimes 5 to 8 years—to completely fill back in, depending greatly upon available sunlight, plant health, growing conditions, and the severity of the pruning.

Before choosing this approach, consider whether you are comfortable looking at exposed woody growth while nature slowly rebuilds the shrub.

Option 2: Trim Lightly and Enlarge the Plant Bed

If the yew is healthy and its larger size works with the property, another option is simply to accept the mature size of the plant.

Instead of aggressively reducing it, a few inches of growth can be trimmed as needed while the surrounding plant bed is enlarged—when space allows—to better accommodate the shrub.

Sometimes the plant isn't necessarily too large. The original planting space has simply become too small for the mature plant.

Option 3: Remove and Replace

There are also situations where rejuvenating an oversized yew simply doesn't make practical sense.

If the shrub has significantly outgrown its location, interferes with the home or surrounding landscape, has an undesirable shape, or would require years of recovery following severe pruning, removal and replacement may be worth considering.

This also creates an opportunity to select new plant material based upon its mature size, rather than continually trying to force a naturally larger plant to remain within a space that is too small for it.

Before You Remove a Healthy Yew...

Take a moment to consider all three options.

Can it be rejuvenated? Can the planting bed accommodate its mature size? Or has the time finally come to remove it and start fresh?

There isn't one answer that works for every property. The health and size of the yew, available sunlight, surrounding landscape, desired appearance, and your willingness to wait for new growth should all be considered.

Yews planted along a residential foundation with multiple perennials.

Please feel free to contact our team at Pacocha Landscaping Services, Inc. if you have questions about maintaining, rejuvenating, removing, or replacing evergreen shrubs around your property.

Thank you for visiting, and have a great day!