Hard Pruning - YEW

I have 2 large Yews, probably Taxus bacatta, that are about 4m diameter and 3m high. They have outgrown their space. How drastically can I prune them and can anyone suggest the best time?

They are both in an irrgated setting one, with full sun the other with 1/2 sun.

I was thinking a hard prune of 50% plant material removal in the late fall ... does this seem reasonable?

 

You can prune them as drastically as you need to - unlike most other conifers they will happily regrow from old wood.

I am not sure of the "best" time to do it but fall sounds logical.

 

When I moved into this house years ago there were two Yews at both North corners of the house. They were obstructing the neighbors water view and I wasn't that excited about them either. They were both ten feet tall. I had them "trimmed" to about 6 inches from the ground. A few months later they were happily sending up new shoots. I cut the shoots - they regrew, cut again, same thing. I finally had to have someone come out and grind out the stumps to finally get rid of them. I wouldn't worry about trimming them. My neighbor just cut about a foot from the top of hers, sooooo ;)) barb

 

Have 2 yews, one in each corner of a half-the-length-of-the-house brick 'flowerbox'. Have tried over the years to in fact get flowers to grow in it...yeah, well, it's under the eave, so gets no rain, and if one waters enough to keep plants alive---not so good for the iffy foundation wall.

However...the yews have thrived. (They were here before I moved in 25 years ago.) Once a year my daughter performs the athletic feat of wrassling these mammoth shrubs into some semblance of decorum. Got back from work on Wednesday eve and lo! The street can now be viewed through the bathroom window! As Barb and maf describe, this treatment seems to be well-tolerated by the yews: I expect to see new growth soon. Am glad that my daughter goes at 'em---her boldness of pruning style has proved to be just the ticket.

Also, I have many baby yews that have appeared in the smaller bed below their parents...and one all the way down by the sidewalk! This latter, now about 2 feet tall, I contemplate trimming into a topiary...or maybe an exact geometric figure, such as the admirably precise rectangular prisms achieved by my neighbor.

So, mcroteau, what we are telling you, both individually and collectively, is: Prune Away!

 

Well, thank you all for the replies - I shall prune them HARD next week!