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Yew trees


Lisa
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Hi,

Can anyone tell me, if you can cut/trim back Yew trees. We will be inheriting a garden which has 2 Yew trees. One has been cut/trimmed at some time in its life as it is compact but the other is a tree. Can I 'top it out', like a conifer and also cut back some of the branches and when is the best time to do it.

rgds lisa

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I don't know about cutting Yew trees but if you end up with any large pieces (2 metes of so in length)  Please don't burn them as they are worth a small fortune to bow makers.  It's really difficult to find Yew nowadays, a good longbow made from Yew will cost more than £500 !!!

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Hi

There is a village near us in the UK which has a lot of yew hedging running through it.

Every year they trim the hedge and the cuttings are sold to raise money for a local charity as they are somehow used in medicine production.

I don't know any more details but is is a yearly thing where all the village come out and join in.

Sorry it doesn't help with your question but it may be worth looking into?

James
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Thank you both for your replies.

James, Thank you, I knew about the cancer treatment as my step-daughter had treatment for cancer 2yrs ago made with Yew but I don't know who I would contact here in France about it.

Pierre ZFP, Thanks for the information, I didn't know about the bow making. I knew they make furniture and the cancer treatment from the trees. The large tree must be at least 7m tall as it is nearly as tall as the house and has numerous branches coming off it which are the bits I want to cut back, maybe I should advertise the bits on eBay and see what I could get, it would certainly help to tame the rest of the garden.

Lisa[;-)] 

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  • 2 weeks later...
[quote user="Lisa"]

Can anyone tell me, if you can cut/trim back Yew trees? ...  but the other is a tree. Can I 'top it out', like a conifer and also cut back some of the branches and when is the best time to do it.[/quote]

Yes, you can, Lisa.  (Remember, Yew is one the top trees for topiary.  In fact, it can even be coppiced).  Just be wary of being too brutal all in one go.  Altho' very forgiving of hard pruning, mature Yew is fairly slow growing, i.e. it will take time to recover.  So, go at it too hard initially, and it may look a mess for longer than you intended ...

Spring is the season advised by the RHS, btw.

HTH

Craig

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Thank you Craig, just what I needed to know, never thought of doing topiary, I think the smaller one has been 'squared' off at some point in its life so might just get it back into shape to start with.

rgds Lisa[:D]

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[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]

I don't know about cutting Yew trees but if you end up with any large pieces (2 metes of so in length)  Please don't burn them as they are worth a small fortune to bow makers.  It's really difficult to find Yew nowadays, a good longbow made from Yew will cost more than £500 !!!

[/quote]

GRRR!! I just cut down a yew tree a couple of weeks ago and it's now in my woodshed in nice neat 500mm lengths. I'd looked on my list of burning properties of different wood and it said it was very good. Didn't mention it was also expensive.

You live and learn.
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Oh that is a pity as I know a couple of skillfull boyers who would give their eye teeth for a good piece of yew.  Yew has remarkable properties where the sap wood and heart wood work best under tension compression respectively.  This means you can make a longbow from one piece of wood (known as a self-bow) unlike my longbow which is made from laminations of Osage, hickory and lemonwood.

I was told (and I stand to be corrected) that yew is quite scarce as not only does it grow slowly but all parts of it are highly poisonous and many trees have been felled for that reason alone.

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Yew is very poisonous and just a couple of mouthfuls can cause a very quick death to grazing animals. They are often found with yew foliage in their mouths. Because of this yew was planted in churchyards which in medieval times were the only fenced/walled enclosures where animals did not have access.
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