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Hicks Yew Hedge Question

19 years ago

Dear Members,

I just planted about 180' of Hicks Yew (about 60 plants) for a privacy hedge here on the Connecticut coast. The plants are 3-4' tall in ball and burlap, set into a trench, and filled with the typical manure/compost/humus/native soil mix. I used some super phosphate in the bottom, and some holly tone on top, and mulched over. The hedge looks great. My question is- should I shear the tops back now? I'm in the habit of pruning back newly transplanted shrubs, but in the case of these, I'm not sure. Each plant has several inches of new growth.

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Comments (9)

Ron_B
19 years ago
Your post lists a litany of mistakes, I am afraid.

1) Amended planting holes (trench)

2) Fertilization (presumably) without sampling soil and having it tested

3) Top pruning at planting time

Too late for 1 and 2, but you can still prevent 3.

In future, skip 1 and 2.
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Ron_B
19 years ago
The burlap, nails and ties should come off and out of the hole, too.
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It depends on how high you want your hedge to be. Dense yews are shorter than Hicks yews, at least in my experience. We have some dense yews that I've been trying to get more height from since we moved here in 1998. I trim them "rough", and as little as possible, but they're not much taller now than 8 years ago. We put in about a dozen Hicks yews in 1999 as part of a 100-ft long woody privacy berm. They were 3-ft. high. We spaced them on 4.5-ft. centers, and they've grown nicely into hedge formation. I trim them once a year and I'd say they're about 5-ft tall now. They might have been taller if I hadn't trimmed them each year, but I wanted them to develop a compact habit. As for fertilizers, I don't think I feed them more than once every 2-3 years. I've used fertilizer spikes for evergreens. I've also used Holly Tone. The soil is very nice, though, and they probably don't need to be fed at all. They tend to suffer bad winter burn, even with a southern exposure, so sometimes I give the most vulnerable ones some burlap protection for winter. Hope this helps, Tina McG
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After I went to Firefox the popups were out of the picture. Hicks yew makes a small tree here, if you wait long enough. You may want to clip it for compactness, it is more open and wavy than Irish yew (except when an Irish yew splays open under damp snow). The main thing with yews is that they must have good drainage. With Taxus x media cultivars in particular there is also the problem of them tending to go bronze in winter. Except in the bitterly cold climates where some of the wild species are native I cannot see the point of planting everbrowns myself. I do indulge in Thuja koraiensis and its especially queer winter discoloration because it is such a honey otherwise.
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TimO_in_Ct
Original Author
19 years ago
Thanks Ron,
Unfortunately, in our area, a certain amount of fill is necessary because of the rocks. For example, in the first 100' of the fence we removed about 5 tons of rocks and boulders. Enough to make a rock wall 3'high and wide, and about about 20' long. Small price for living in paradise I guess.

The burlap came off. We slit the bottoms as they went in and then just pulled up on the burlap. Ours had rope, not the wire cage that would have made it much more difficult.

Personally, I don't consider root stimulator a fertilizer, but I guess it is. The HollyTone is pretty aggressive as well, and for the local conditions, a pretty good idea.

Could you suggest a maintenance program for this plant/hedge? Do you have alot of experience with it? I seems, due to its natural shape, to require very little pruning or shearing.

TIA,

TimO
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Ron_B
19 years ago
If you can let it grow, then do, because clipping it will be alot more work.
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ashridge_trees
17 years ago
Hi
Yew is slow growing AFTER you cut off the growing tip. Therefore, if you want a hedge, trim the sides (cut them back quite hard the first time to encourage branching), but leave the tops alone until they are at least as tall as you want the hedge to be. Before you cut them they will grow at up to 12' a year. After you cut them, you are lucky if you see 2'.

A mulch of well rotted compost or you know what, about 1' deep every couple of years will keep them happy, and improve the soil as the worms carry it down.

At Ashridge Trees we grow and sell about 10,000 yew a year so hopefully we know what to do with them.

Good luck

Here is a link that might be useful: Ashridge Trees
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karinl
17 years ago
In the case of annual growth I suspect you mean inches, not feet. If the mulch is to be a foot deep - not at the trunk, I presume.
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stshu
16 years ago
I have a 100 foot of hedge. Planted 4 feet apart they are 8 to 10 feet tall, seven years old from seedlings. They have never been pruned. They are starting to lean about 1/2 way up. How do I prune to make the top half stronger, and straight
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mwilcox_triotel_net
13 years ago
Just planted 8 hicks yew end of the summer 2010 I have a lot of brown branches now is this a normal happening coming out of a hard winter or do I have some other issues?
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Nam Phan
8 years ago
trim the brown branches down. I recently had some brown from a recent hard winter. after trimming the brown off, the yew will sprout news growth fairly quclickly.
0

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