Here's a natural one. Quite a bit larger than yours (it's something like 800 years old!), but it gives an idea of the more open crown you might want to try and develop, while having similar rounded shape.

Resin

I have been trimming my yew hedge for the 22 yrs I've lived here. Because they are healthy and help keep the house cool in summer I haven't had the motivation to get rid of them even though there are a myriad of other conifers I could put in their place. The reality is they want to grow like Resin's picture shows. The only way to maintain a natural look and keep them 3x3 would be a painstakingly long and arduous job every year. It would involve selectively removing the longest branches, but then you'd end up with hairy looking balls-did that come out right? The good thing is, no matter what you do, or how you carve them up, they almost always come back.

tj

To be honest I don't think there is really a practical way of keeping yews that small and natural looking. One can usually keep a tree much smaller than is natural by continuous pruning, but it is a lot of work and normally results in an unnatural or unattractive appearance.

For the amount of work it would take every year to maintain them you'd be better off biting the bullet and getting rid of them. The replacements need not be expensive, especially if you buy smaller plants.

Alternatively you could accept a less natural shape without going to the extreme of a cube or perfect ball. To get rid of the trace of the cube you may want to cut them hard back and let them regrow.

tj-I certainly don't want hairy balls..ahem. Do you trim your yews into a shape? You said hedge, so I'm picturing the long rectangular shape. Am I right?

My yews are 14 years old and are currently around 3'x3'. They are not out of place in my neighborhood because everyone who has a yew/s trims it into either a cube or ball, but is it a terrible sin to do that or is it acceptable practice with these shrubs?

Since we can't really afford to replace them right now and even if we did with inexpensive plants, the front yard would look like new construction planting and very out of place in the neighborhood. We've replaced a lot in the past year and those plants are still immature looking. I guess I was hoping someone had a good way to trim and snip here and there to make it look less like a ball but that doesn't really seem feasible. I think the best way to go in my case, is to live with the balls for now and once other plantings are in, cut them back but not so far back that they look like stumps. Maybe take off 12-18 inches. Can I do that and have them still be green? Or will it be dead looking for a while before new growth starts? If I do decide to cut them back, what's the best time of year to do that and where do I cut?

Thanks!

The problem with frequently sheared yews is that they get too dense, compared to the "natural look".
The solution is simple: stop shearing, and prune out about half the branches all the way to the stem(s) -- and possibly also cut out a few excess stems.
I did this to my T. cuspidata 'Capitata' a few years ago, and now you couldn't tell that it started out as a topiary.
Go for it !

Yes, it is a hedge. 5 feet high or so, seven feet deep and 38 feet across the front of my house except for an 8 foot gap by the front door. I cut mine right about now. The new growth is just about done and it's in time to harden off before winter. Kinda cube shape, I'm not too anal about precision, just eyeball it.
tj

jaro-do you have a picture? Not necessarily of your 'topiary' (though that would be interesting) but what it looks like now? Your suggestion might work for me and while there is nothing surrounding my yews at the moment, now might be a good time to get in there and cut. Will it look deadish for a while?

It will look a bit deadish if you reach in a cut a few branches right back to the main trunk, but if you shake out/trim off the dead twigs and needles in there it will look airier and you will see the structure along the lines of the big tree.

Start at the back of your shrubs and see if the effect is what you like. Once you have some light and space in the thing, you should be prepared to see more trunk and stems, since each branch is not all lined with fresh needles in there.

Jaro is right that what you are likely to see is that each branch will in turn branch several times, and that is what makes them dense. To get the look you want (or think you want :-)) you basically need to correct that excessive branching and restore the single main branch to a semblance of straightness with no offshoots. It's not easy and it might not in fact look that great as the branches will be crooked at best. It's a risk, if you value fitting in with the neighbours. I have an unpruned Hicks yew that is about 10 years old and it mostly has long, unbranched but fairly upright branches. But the branches get bare with age, whether they are inside a meatball or exposed.

I wonder if you should instead think about keeping them sheared but in a different shape; a plinth or a chess piece or something. (OK that might be a little advanced). But get yourself a book on topiary and see what the practice looks like when taken to the level of art. I actually really like it, but rarely have the heart to snip a branch. I also really enjoy the shapes that people come up with who have the space for them; we don't just have meatballs around here but all sorts of swoopy mushrooms and whoopee cushions and such.

One thing you should know is that yews are very forgiving. If you decide you hate the result of your pruning, just cut back the branch in question again and it should resprout in the following year.

KarinL

I think I may be able to put together a set of comparison photos ("before and after") -- just need a more recent photo.

No, doesn't "look deadish for a while" -- just a bit sparse, before new shoots pop out.
But this is all under your control -- how quickly & drastically you want to achieve the transformation -- or not.
It can just as easily be done more gradually, over a few years, I would imagine....

Thanks all. You've given me good advice. I will probably go out there and snip a little here and there to see what I'm getting myself into and then decide if I want to go further. I probably won't be carving any chess pieces or whoopie cushions anytime soon though. ;) Although before I sheared them into meatballs, the thought of sculpting them did cross my mind. We may one day replace them but in the meantime, I think I'll stop worrying about it so much.

you said you dont have the money to remove them all ...

how big of a project does this need to be???

they can be removed for no more than the cost of a decent saw .... and the trunks be left to rot.. or dug up ... do you have a son with some friends ...

the left most is going to start failing for lack of sun as the shade tree continues to grow ...

the two on the right.. in the little island should be removed as they are too big for the space.. perhaps those are the ones you already have targeted ....

which only leaves two others ....

and if you time it right.. you can pick up some nice stock in fall ... at proper planting time.... for cheap ...

but for the back breaking labor.. i dont see where it cant all be done for under 50 bucks ....

you might want to look at some small shrubs rather than conifers to keep cost down ... goldflame spirea comes to mind.. but you would have to check the sun requirements ....

these yews.. are OLD ... you are trying to make grandma look like marilyn monroe.. you are going to spend decades trying .. it isnt going to work .... unless you are just that type of person who likes the challenge.. though you 'sound' like you are coming to wits end ....

i recommend removal .. and the emergence of a whole new scheme .... and it doesnt have to cost all that much ...

whatever you decide.. good luck

ken

Excellent point Ken.

However, some yews have quite attractive trunks, worth displaying in a "grandma" specimen, by pruning out branches.

Of course a big part of it is personal taste/preference.

But it helps to be aware of alternatives.

OK, got some pictures.

When I purchased my Taxus cuspidata 'Capitata' it was a cone-shaped topiary with foliage so dense, you couldn't see the trunks.
I had no choice -- it seems all the local nurseries sell them that way (or similar).

I let it get established for about a year.
The following year I pruned it aggressively, as you can see in the photo on the left -- with lots of trunks visible.
A great big pile of branches & twigs went into the garbage.

Today the yew looks completely different (picture on right).

I adjusted the size of the photos such that the plant is roughly to the same scale in both of them (as you can also tell by the fence boards).

There are still too many trunks, so at some point I will start pruning out the thinner ones, eventually leaving maybe 3 or 4 nice fat ones.....

{{gwi:534676}}

That's nice Jaro. It does take some fortitude to do this kind of cutting as the results are kind of unpredictable, at least from one angle if not the other.

I saw a more mature yew the other day that was poodled... I think that's the term for what you often see done to junipers - several horizontal branches each carrying a terminal ball of green. I don't like that look all that much but I will say that the mature trunks of the yew looked really nice - worth exposing. I think this one was a T. baccata.

For fellow Vancouverites, this was in the garden at Cecil Green at UBC. I must say there are some nice conifers in the garden there.

KarinL

That's quite pretty. I like the shape of it. Very nice! Thank you for taking the time to post those.

I have yews that used to be sheared. I cut out about a third of the branches close to the ground for three years to get a nice 'fountain' look. They do get larger over the years, and now I am starting to cut back again -- always close to the ground. If you want them to stay small, then be brave and cut all the branches back to close to the ground when they get unwieldy. I did one two years ago and it is now a nice small fountain.