The Taxuspedia™

Yew is a conifer, a needle-bearing plant, and belongs to the yew family, the Taxaceae. It is evergreen, so it does not drop its needles in winter. In the wild, yew grows naturally across much of Europe, including the Netherlands.

Unlike most conifers, yew does not produce cones. On a female plant the seed sits in a soft, red covering, which is what most people call the berry. Male and female plants are separate. You can read more about that under the question 'Can you tell whether a yew is male or female?'.

Yew grows slowly, but reaches a great age. Some trees in Europe are more than a thousand years old. It tolerates deep shade and hard pruning, and it is exactly that combination that makes it so suited to a tight hedge or topiary. Almost every part is poisonous, only the red flesh is not. You can read about that under the question 'Is yew poisonous?'.

You will sometimes hear yew called a shrub or bush. That is not quite right. A shrub is not a plant species but a growth form, a woody plant that branches low without a clear trunk. By nature, yew is not that. Leave it alone and it slowly becomes a small tree. But because in the garden you almost always keep it low and as a hedge, it behaves like a shrub, and that is how the garden centre sells it too. Hence the label shrub turning up now and then. Botanically it stays a conifer that you use as a shrub.

Yew is evergreen, so your hedge stands in full leaf even in the middle of winter. And it branches very densely by nature. That makes it an excellent screen against prying eyes, wind and noise, all year round.

What is special is that yew does not mind hard pruning. Where many plants stay bare if you cut into the old wood, yew simply shoots again from it. That lets you keep it tight and in shape, and you can also clip it into balls, pyramids or other figures. For tight, formal hedges there is hardly a better choice.

On top of that, it grows in spots where many other hedging plants give up, including deep shade. And a yew hedge is not a temporary thing. Well looked after, it lasts for decades, sometimes generations. So you are really planting it for the long term.

It is not for everyone. It grows slowly, so patience is needed, and it is poisonous. When yew is not the most sensible choice, you can read under the question 'When is yew not the best choice?'.

The strongest sustainability argument is its lifespan. A yew can last for decades, and in the right conditions centuries. It even shoots again from bare, old wood, so a neglected hedge can often be cut back and rejuvenated instead of dug out. So you plant it, in effect, once, for the long haul. A wooden fence you replace a few times in that same span.

On top of that, it needs little. Yew is tough, asks for little fertiliser and rarely a pesticide, and grows slowly, so it also produces fewer clippings than a fast grower. It stays green all year, catches some wind and dust, and stands firm enough to ride out a good storm.

And a living hedge does more than a fence. A yew offers birds a place to nest and, on female plants, berries, and gives insects shelter. It takes up CO2 for as long as it grows, and it often replaces wood, concrete or plastic. Another nice thing is that a yew does not have to go as it ages. Where many garden plants eventually open up or age badly, a yew only becomes fuller and more characterful.

Whether it is the single most sustainable plant, we would not dare to say, because that depends on what you measure. But for a hedge you want to keep for decades, and with a bit of luck generations, yew is one of the most sustainable choices there is. Slow, solid and lasting, exactly what it is good at.

Taxus baccata occurs naturally in Europe, so as a plant it is about as natural as it gets. But 'organic' says nothing about the species. It is a legally protected term about the growing method and about which products are allowed in it. You may only call a plant organic once the grower is certified for it, in the Netherlands through SKAL.

We do not hold that certificate, so we do not call our yew organic. Yew is a tough plant that rarely needs a pesticide, and it asks for little feeding of its own accord. In open-ground growing a light hand is the norm, at most a little fertiliser now and then when a plant really needs it. Natural and sparing with products, then, but without an organic label.

It comes down to not mixing up two things. Natural and sustainable is something other than certified organic. The first is in the plant, the second is in the paperwork. We like green, not green talk. We do not do greenwashing.

Field-grown yew is best planted from September through to April, as long as it is not freezing too hard. We advise starting from the middle of September, provided it is no longer too warm. That varies from year to year. One year you can start in mid-September, another year it is still too warm then and you have to wait a little.

When planting there are two things that are not the same. How deep you loosen the soil, and how deep the plant itself ends up standing. You always loosen the soil deeper than the planting hole itself, so the roots can easily work their way down afterwards.

Loosen the soil to about 50 to 60 centimetres deep. If there is a hard or obstructive layer underneath, dig deeper. Otherwise water sits there and the roots cannot get through. The guide measurements per plant size are in the table under the question 'What planting distance should I use for a yew hedge?'.

If you are planting bare-root stock, dig a trench deep and wide enough for the roots, around 25 to 30 centimetres. You have no root ball as a reference point, so keep the top root about a thumbnail deep below the ground, around 1.5 to 2 centimetres. Here too, better slightly too shallow than too deep.

With a root-balled plant the depth of the hole depends on the height of the root ball, and the width on the width of the root ball. The top of the root ball comes level with the ground. The hessian sack may stay around the root ball, it rots away in the soil by itself. Keep a small strip of the hessian showing above the ground. That is the soil line, the height at which the plant stood in our open ground. Plant it back to exactly that line.

How wide to make the planting hole or trench, you can read under the question 'How wide should my planting hole or trench be?'.

In all cases, do not plant too deep. Planting too deep is a common mistake and can harm the plant.

It depends on what you are planting. A single yew goes in a separate planting hole. A hedge is not planted in separate holes but in a continuous trench, so the roots share the same loosened soil from plant to plant.

For a single plant, make the hole a little more generous than the root ball. A root ball of around 30 centimetres wide goes in a hole of about 50 centimetres. That way there is loosened soil all around for the roots to grow into easily.

For a hedge you dig a trench. The minimum width per plant size is in the table under the question 'What planting distance should I use for a yew hedge?'. You will also find there how deep to loosen the soil.

In both cases, loosen the soil under and beside the plants well. If there is a hard or obstructive layer, dig deeper. The plant does not end up any deeper, you only make the soil around it easier to root into.

No, the hessian sack may simply stay around the root ball. That is even better. The hessian holds the root ball together during planting and rots away in the soil by itself. The roots grow through it without trouble. We get this question very often, because it feels contradictory to put packaging into the ground. But hessian is a natural product and breaks down within a few months.

Watch out. Very occasionally there is a nylon sack around the root ball instead of real hessian. That does have to be removed before planting, because nylon does not rot in the soil and blocks root growth. We always point it out explicitly when this is the case. Not sure? Feel the material. Real hessian feels rough and fibrous, nylon feels smoother and tighter.

That depends on the size of the plants:

• Bare-root stock (20 to 30 cm and 30 to 50 cm). 5 plants per linear metre
• Plants with a root ball. 3 to 4 plants per linear metre
• Very large plants with a root ball. about 2.5 plants per linear metre

If you want to know it exactly per size, you can use this table. It also shows how deep to loosen the soil and the minimum width of the planting trench.

With a root ball the number also depends on the width of the plant and the size of the root ball.

And of course we do not supply half plants. Look at it this way. If you want to plant two linear metres of 140 to 160 cm, that works out at 5 plants.

This mainly comes up with bare-root stock, where you place 5 plants per metre. It helps to picture how you spread them across the metre.

Measure from the start. You place the first plant at around 10 cm, then a new one every 20 cm. You then end up at roughly 10, 30, 50, 70 and 90 cm. About 10 cm is left at the start and at the end.

An easy anchor point: the middle plant sits exactly in the centre, at 50 cm. From there you set two to the left and two to the right, each 20 cm apart.

That margin on either side means the next metre joins on neatly. From the last plant to the first of the next metre is again about 20 cm, without two ending up too close together at the join.

It does not come down to the centimetre. Yew grows dense enough to even out small differences. See it mainly as a guide so your row looks even.

How many plants you need depends mainly on the size. For a block of one metre by one metre, use roughly this:

• Small, bare-root up to 40 cm. 22 to 24 plants
• 40 to 60 cm, with root ball. 12 to 14 plants
• 60 to 80 cm, with root ball. 7 to 9 plants
• 80 to 120 cm, with root ball. 4 to 5 plants

You build a yew block in two ways, with a few large plants or with a group of small ones. Both work fine, it is mainly a matter of budget and patience. Large plants are at height straight away, you pay more for them but your block also looks like a block right away. Small plants are cheaper, you just have to give them time to fill out. If you cannot wait, start big. If you have patience and want to keep the cost in hand, small plants are the smart choice.

Do not set the plants in dead-straight rows directly behind one another. Far nicer and quicker to fill is the staggered pattern, where you offset each row relative to the last, so alternating. That has three advantages. The plants fill each other's gaps right away, you cannot see through the block, and every plant gets light from all sides. That gives healthier growth from the bottom up.

How exactly you set them out depends on the size. Small plants go in a few rows that stagger alternately. With the largest sizes you cannot even zigzag, because the root balls are so thick, often 30 to 40 centimetres wide, that no rows fit in a square metre. Then you work with a square. For four plants you put one in each corner, for five plants four in the corners and one in the middle, just like the five on a die. Your block is then equally full everywhere from day one.

Plants with a root ball establish faster and more safely than bare-root, because the fine hair roots sit protected in the soil. From size 60 to 80 you have a recognisable, compact block standing right after planting and a first trim.

On most garden soils improving the soil is not strictly necessary, but it does help. Mix the dug-out soil with mature compost or good garden soil, so the ground becomes airier and easier to root into. On heavy clay, add coarse sand or lava granules for drainage. On poor sandy soil, extra organic matter is what matters, to hold moisture and feeding for longer.

Never use fertilised garden soil pure in the planting hole. It is too sharp for young roots and can scorch them. Always mix it well through the existing soil, so the transition to the surrounding ground stays gradual. Otherwise the roots stay stuck in a small, rich pocket of soil and do not grow out into the garden.

For autumn planting we do not use fertilised garden soil. Then you want rest and structure in the soil, not a growth spurt. Use compost or unfertilised garden soil. For spring planting, fertilised garden soil may be mixed with poor soil, but only in moderation.

Yew makes one hard demand of the soil. The water has to be able to get away. If the plant stands with wet roots for long periods, it goes downhill and eventually dies. Good drainage is therefore not a luxury but a condition.

How you go about it depends on your situation. Sandy soil drains well by nature and rarely gives problems. Clay soil holds water and almost always calls for extra measures. A low spot in the garden is trickier than a slope, where the water runs off by itself.

Below is a rough overview of the options.

For small plantings you can often do something yourself by improving or raising the soil locally. For larger hedges or structurally wet ground it is wise to have a landscaper or soil specialist take a look before you start. That prevents disappointment afterwards.

Every situation is different, and in the end you know your own garden best. We are happy to advise on the choice of plants. The soil is your own responsibility.

If the same plants have stood in a spot for years, the soil becomes, as it were, worn out. Certain nutrients are used up, and disease germs, fungi and nematodes that prey on that species build up. We call that soil sickness. It does not only happen with yew, but with almost any hedge you replace with the same or a related species. A new hedge in exactly the same spot then grows with difficulty, even if you do everything else right.

The surest solution is to refresh the soil where the new plants go. Dig the trench out generously and also remove the old roots well, because leftover roots can harbour fungi and get in the way of the new roots. Fill with fresh, clean soil, mixed with mature, clean compost if you like. Do not use compost made from the prunings of the old hedge, because the same germs can be in it. That way the roots start in clean soil.

If you cannot or do not want to refresh the soil, there are two other routes. Plant the new hedge a good way beside the old line, in soil where that same species did not stand before. Or choose a different species from what was there, because soil sickness is largely species-specific. A different hedging plant suffers far less from the germs that prey on the previous species.

The bags look alike and so do the names, but they are different things for different purposes. Pick the wrong one and your yew can suffer for it. Below you see per type what it is and what you use it for.

One thread runs through it all. Always mix through your own dug-out soil and never throw anything pure into the planting hole. How exactly to go about that when planting, you can read under the question 'Should I improve the soil when planting?'.

The big shift is the cutting back of peat. Peat holds water and feeding stably and was for years the basis of almost every potting compost. But digging up peatlands costs nature and gives off a lot of CO2, and so in the Netherlands it has been agreed to use less and less of it. Instead there is now more often compost, wood fibre, coir or bark in the bag.

Those replacements are perfectly usable, but they behave differently. They often hold less water and feeding than peat, settle faster and dry out faster. A soil with a lot of wood fibre can even turn water-repellent on top after a dry spell, while old-fashioned peat-rich soil takes up moisture again more easily. It then feels as if the soil is worse, while it mainly reacts differently. And there is more difference between bags and brands than there used to be.

For yew that is worth watching, because yew reacts sensitively to the water balance and the air in the soil. Especially with yew in a pot or container it means you do not trust the bag blindly, but feel for yourself whether the soil is still moist and water in time.

You can, but watch the soil carefully. In new-build areas the garden is often bare building ground, compacted by heavy machinery, riddled with rubble, and covered with a layer of white fill sand. Almost nothing grows in that white sand. It contains no nutrients, hardly holds moisture and gets scorching hot in summer. We see it often. People plant their hedge in the white sand the paver left behind and wonder why everything dies.

A problem that is often overlooked is the compaction of the subsoil. If heavy machinery has driven over the ground for months, the soil is compacted. That compacted layer hardly lets water through. You can lay perfectly good garden soil on top, but if the subsoil is closed up, the water sits there and the roots rot away. Working the soil to sufficient depth is therefore essential, not only to remove the white sand and rubble, but precisely also to break open that compacted layer so the water can drain.

Dig the white sand and any rubble away until you reach the original soil, or replace it with good garden soil. Mix the soil generously with compost and loosen it well, at least as deep as with a normal planting, so around 50 to 60 centimetres. With new-build it may well be deeper, because the heavy machinery has compacted the subsoil considerably. Work through until you have loose, root-friendly soil again. Yew is not fussy, but in dead soil even a yew cannot grow. If you plant in autumn, use compost or unfertilised garden soil and no fertilised garden soil. That gives a growth spurt you do not want just before winter.

Under Dutch neighbour law (Article 5:42 of the Civil Code) a hedge must stand at least 50 centimetres from the boundary, unless a council bylaw stipulates otherwise or the neighbours agree something different between them. So always check your local bylaw (the APV). If you plant at exactly 50 cm, bear in mind that you also have to be able to prune the hedge on the neighbours' side.

The weather is local. It can be dry and frost-free with us while at your place, on the other side of the country, it is still freezing hard. And the other way around just as easily. Your weather and our weather do not always run in step.

In heavy frost we cannot lift the plants ourselves either. The roots do not come up whole from frozen ground. After a lot of rain the field is too wet to lift. If we drive machinery over it then, the soil compacts and we damage its structure. And if there is a thick layer of snow, we cannot get onto the field either.

Cannot plant the yew, or can we not lift? Then get in touch with us in good time, or with the grower you ordered from, and ask whether the collection can be moved. Do not do that at the very last moment, because by then the plants are often already lifted and lying ready to be collected.

Have you already collected the yew and cannot get it in the ground at home yet? Then you can heel the plants in for a while. How to do that, you can read under the question 'I am collecting my yew plants but cannot plant them right away. How do I store them?'.

Lay the plants out of the sun and wind as soon as possible, preferably in a shed, garage or other sheltered spot. Cover the roots with a damp sheet or an old blanket, so they do not dry out. Do not use plastic. Under it things can heat up and the plants get no air, with smothering and fungus as the result.

If you cannot plant them for a few days, set the plants in the ground temporarily. That is called heeling in. Dig a shallow trench, lay the roots in it and throw damp soil over them. That way the roots stay protected and moist until you can plant them for good.

This is the step that is skipped most often, and precisely the most important. When you plant a yew, there are always pockets of air left between the root ball and the soil around it. Roots that hang in such a pocket dry out and do not grow. A good watering flushes the soil between the roots and closes those pockets.

Do this straight away on planting day, and not sparingly. Really let the water sink into the soil and repeat it if needed. Even if it rains that day, you water. Rain only wets the top layer and does not settle the soil around the root ball the way a targeted watering does. And the soil feeling moist says nothing about the air pockets still left between after planting.

After that, the following applies. Water regularly in the first year, certainly when it is dry. But that first watering, right after planting, is the one you must not skip.

The first growing season is the most vulnerable. The roots are not yet deep enough to find water themselves and the plant needs all its energy to establish. What to watch for:

• Water. Give a good watering weekly, certainly in dry or warm weather. Not a little every day, but one thorough soaking once a week. Check regularly at 10 cm deep whether the soil is still moist.
• Pruning. In the first year only trim lightly at the sides to encourage branching, or at most snip away the odd sprig that sticks out. Do not yet prune at the top if the hedge has not reached the height you want. A hard rejuvenation cut in the first year is out of the question.
• Feeding. Whether you feed depends on when you planted. With autumn planting you give no extra fertiliser in the planting season. The plant goes into winter with a calm, improved soil. With spring planting you may feed lightly, but only on poor soil and only if you have not already worked in compost or fertilised garden soil. Never overdo nitrogen. That gives soft, vulnerable growth.
• Mulching. Apply a layer of mulch 5 to 8 cm thick around the hedge right after planting. That keeps the soil moist, protects the young roots against heat and cold, and suppresses weeds that would otherwise compete with the new plants for water and feeding.

Yes, without any problem. In full sun yew grows more compact and denser, which is exactly what you want for hedges and topiary. Its need for moisture is higher than in the shade, though, so bear that in mind when watering.

Yew is one of the few conifers that still grows well even in deep shade. That makes it ideal for spots under trees, on the north side of buildings, or in enclosed gardens with little direct sunlight. The growth is a little looser and slower than in the sun, but the plant stays healthy.

Yew is one of the few hedging plants that does well in deep shade. So the fact that it can stand under trees is not down to the light. You can read more about that in the question 'Can yew grow in shade?'.

The real problem under a tree is that tree's roots. They take up a lot of moisture and nutrients, and right under the canopy little rain reaches the ground as well. That makes it drier there than you would think, especially close to the trunk. A young yew has to root its way against that, and that takes time.

So for the first two to three years give it plenty of water, with a good soaking now and then in dry spells. For roughly how much, see the question 'How often should I water yew?'. A layer of mulch around the plants keeps the soil moist for longer. Do not plant right up against the trunk, but half a metre or more away, where the root pressure is lower.

Do bear in mind that under a tree yew grows more slowly and stays a little thinner than in an open spot. It will manage, but you have to give it a hand at the start.

That can certainly become a problem. Paving and concrete edging get warm in the sun and radiate that heat into the soil beside them, so the ground around the roots can heat up considerably. In a narrow strip there is too little soil volume to hold moisture, and through wind and reflection the soil dries out faster than in an open border. The result is chronic drying out of the roots, especially in dry summers.

You can, but watch two things. First, be careful with yew right against a treated fence. With some wood preservatives (particularly the older CCA timber with copper and chromium), substances can wash into the soil through rain and condensation and damage the roots. Modern preservatives are usually less aggressive, but the risk exists, certainly where there is little soil volume. When in doubt, keep at least 30 to 40 cm distance from the fence.

Second, yew needs light on all sides to stay full. If you set a yew too close against a wall or fence, the side against the wall gets no light and that side goes bare. That does not recover, not even with pruning. So always keep enough distance so that light reaches the back of the plant too.

We get this question regularly. A little bed of 30 or 40 cm under the window, not really a garden, just room for a few plants. For yew that is not a happy spot. Not because the hedge cannot be narrow, but because the roots are the problem. Yew roots shallow and wide and wants room underground. In such a narrow strip right against the wall, that room is not there.

On top of that, the soil along a wall is often dry, warm and poor. The wall keeps off part of the rain and gives off heat in summer, and there is little soil to hold moisture. Then yew keeps struggling, however neatly you prune it above ground. It is the same story as with a narrow strip between pavement and drive. Not the ability to prune it, but the position is the limitation.

For such a spot you are better off choosing low perennials or herbs that can manage with little root space. Not sure about a specific spot? Call or email us with the measurements, and we will think along.

An outdoor unit usually stands on a few slabs against the wall, and that is where the first problem is. No root space, just like a narrow strip against the wall. Then there is the air. The unit blows out warm or cold air all day, and a yew right in front of that outflow dries out and goes brown on that side. The other way around, the unit needs free air. If something stands too close in front of it, it draws in its own air again and works less well.

Still want the unit out of sight? Keep the clearance the maker prescribes (have a look in the manual), and set the yew at a distance, to the side or at an angle in front of it, in real soil. A small screen beside the unit works better than a hedge tight around it.

Yes, and yew is even particularly well suited to it. Unlike many other hedging plants, yew is remarkably tolerant of air pollution and exhaust fumes. Fine dust, soot and other pollution have little effect on the health of the plant. That makes yew an excellent choice for hedges along busy streets, drives and roads.

Salt draws moisture out of the roots and the needles and disrupts water uptake, and that is what harms the plant. Too much salt beside the hedge can turn the needles brown, often worst on the side closest to the gritted path or road. Preventing it is simple: spread as little as possible right next to the hedge, do not pile salted snow against the base, and use grit or sand nearby against the ice rather than salt.

In practice people only come to us once the hedge has already gone brown. And by then salt damage is hard to confirm, because brown needles have many possible causes. Usually you can only suspect it from the situation: if the hedge stands right along a gritted path or a busy road, and the street side is clearly browner than the garden side, then salt is a candidate. But brown needles are far more often caused by wet soil, drought or the yew beetle than by salt. For all the possible causes, see the question 'My yew is turning brown. What is going on?'.

The good news is that on free-draining sandy soil salt washes out fairly quickly with the rain. Once the source of salt is gone and the hedge is not standing in wet, salty water for long, yew usually recovers well. Wait until spring before pruning, so you can see which branches come back into leaf and which are truly dead. Only then cut out the dead wood.

Yew is well suited to it. Unlike many deciduous hedges and trees, yew sheds hardly any leaves. It is evergreen and only very gradually drops a few old needles. So you fish far less out of the water than with a birch, beech or Scots pine that rains its needles down. That dense, compact foliage is exactly what makes yew popular around terraces and swimming pools.

Yew tolerates the odd splash of chlorinated water well. Problems only arise if the hedge is wetted with chlorinated or salt water structurally, or if water with a high chlorine concentration keeps ending up in the root zone. So keep the hedge a little back from the edge, around one and a half metres, and make sure overflow and rinse water does not run towards the roots each time.

When it comes to soil, yew is one of the easiest plants there is. It grows on almost anything: sand, clay, loam, and from slightly acidic to calcareous. That makes yew fairly unique among conifers, which are often fussier. The only hard demand is that the soil drains well. Long-standing water is yew's biggest enemy and leads to root rot.

• Sandy soil. Yew grows fine here, but the moisture-holding capacity is low. Working compost through the soil helps, and mulching on top holds the moisture. Magnesium washes out faster on sandy soil, so scattering a little kieserite each year is extra useful here.
• Clay soil. Excellent for yew. Clay holds moisture and feeding well. But heavy clay that turns waterlogged in winter is a risk. We are not really fans of yew in very heavy clay ourselves. If you want it anyway, that is at your own risk, but always work the soil well with coarse sand or lava granules so the water can drain enough. Plant slightly raised if needed.
• Loam soil. Really the ideal soil for yew. Loam holds moisture yet still drains, exactly what yew needs.
• Peat soil. The least suitable: too wet, too acidic and too little structure. Not impossible, but you have to improve it considerably with compost and sand.

With the wet winters of recent years, drainage matters more than ever. Many people think it rains enough, so the water problem is solved. But yew actually drowns in long-wet soil. If your garden regularly floods in winter or the soil stays waterlogged for weeks, you have to improve the drainage before you plant yew.

When it comes to acidity, yew is one of the most tolerant hedging plants. It grows well on soil from slightly acidic to calcareous, which makes it far easier than, say, rhododendron, hydrangea or skimmia, which actually need acidic soil. So for yew you rarely have to do anything about the pH.

On distinctly acidic soil, often older sandy soil or a plot where conifers stood for a long time, a little lime can help. Lime makes nutrients more available and improves the structure. But there is no need to overdo it. Yew does not ask for lime-rich soil, it only tolerates it well. If you do scatter lime, do it in moderation and not in the same season as a heavy feeding.

It can, but as growers we are not fans of it. Yew has a coarse, strong root system that needs room to develop. That is a real difference from box, for example, which has a much finer root structure and so copes better with a limited root volume. In a pot or container the roots of yew soon become cramped. The plant survives it for a number of years, and in a large container it can go well for quite a while, but for lasting healthy growth and a strong plant, open ground is clearly better.

What you do with that is of course up to you. If you do go for a pot, take a generous container of at least 40 litres with drainage holes, do not use standard potting compost but an airier mix with coarse sand or perlite, and water and feed regularly. But know that in a pot the plant always stays more sensitive to drought and frost than in open ground.

Yew is not a wind-sensitive plant and copes fine with a stiff breeze. But in really windy positions, think of open fields, corner plots or spots where the wind has free play, persistent biting wind can dry out the needles. That applies especially in winter. The wind draws moisture from the needles while the frozen ground lets no water through to the roots. The result is browning on the windward side, which you only really see in spring.

See also 'My yew is turning brown. What is going on?' for all the causes of brown needles, and the chapter 'The yew calendar for pests and problems' for when winter scorch comes into play during the year.

Taxus baccata is very hardy in the Dutch climate. Even severe winters with temperatures below minus fifteen are no problem for an established plant. What can cause damage is the combination of frost with other factors: frozen ground with biting wind (the needles dry out), late night frost after a mild spell (young growth freezes), or long drought before winter so the plant goes into the frost with too low a moisture reserve.

Yew is one of the best hedging plants if you really want dense screening. Through its fine, compact branching, a yew hedge grows so dense that you can hardly see through it, even in winter. That is a big advantage over beech, for example. Beech does hold its brown leaves for a long time, but in early spring it is bare for a few weeks. Yew is green and dense all year round.

A mature yew hedge also dampens sound. Along a busy road or drive you notice the difference. It is not a sound wall, but the dense mass of needles and branches absorbs and breaks up sound waves, certainly combined with a hedge of one and a half metres or higher.

Yes, but bear a few things in mind. Yew has a strong root system that takes a fair amount of moisture and feeding from the soil. Plants you set just in front of or behind a yew hedge have to be able to stand up to that. Strong perennials such as geraniums, hostas, hellebores and ornamental grasses do well. Plants with a weak or shallow root system have a harder time.

Also bear light in mind. The foot of a yew hedge is often shady, certainly on the north side. Choose shade plants there. On the sunny side you have more options.

This is roughly what the yew year looks like:

• Early spring, February to April. The start of the season. Feeding is allowed now, a layer of compost or mild organic fertiliser, never in autumn. Planting and transplanting can still be done as long as the plant is dormant and it is not freezing. Water new plantings in good time if it stays dry.
• Late spring and summer, May to August. Pruning is best done around the longest day, late May to late June, once the first growth spurt is over. If you want a berry-free or tight hedge, trim again in July or August. Do not prune during a heatwave or in full sun. In dry, hot spells keep an eye on the watering, especially with young plants. And watch for nesting birds.
• Autumn, September to November. The best planting season for field-grown yew. The soil is still warm and the plant has the whole winter and spring to root. After mid-September do not prune hard any more, because young growth freezes. A last light shaping in early September is still fine. You do not feed now.
• Winter, December to February. Rest period. Planting and transplanting can still be done on a frost-free day, as long as the ground is not frozen. Otherwise you leave the hedge alone. Do not forget young stock entirely, because after a long, dry frosty spell without snow the soil can dry out. Then give a little water on a mild day.

This is the broad line. The details per job are in the separate questions, on pruning, feeding, watering, planting and transplanting. Remember mainly this. Plant and transplant in the dormant season, prune around the longest day, feed in spring, and water in a dry summer. Yew asks no more than that.

For what can come up in pests and problems through the year, see the chapter 'The yew calendar for pests and problems'.

With a freshly planted yew, root-balled or bare-root, watering is the most important job in the first year. Most plants that do not make it die from too little water in the first months, not from frost and not from a lack of feed. Feeding only does something later on, water decides whether the plant takes. Whether and when to feed, you can read at the question 'Should I feed yew?'.

That holds for both plant forms, each for its own reason. A root ball is older and has more root mass, but the outer edge is cut away when it is lifted, so the plant has to root in again first. Bare-root stock is younger and smaller, and those exposed roots must not dry out after planting. Both therefore need a generous amount of water at the start.

If you plant in the wet dormant season, in autumn or winter, nature does much of the work and you water far less. The schedule below applies mainly to planting in the growing season and to dry, warm spells.

How often you water depends on the age of the plant and on the weather:

• First two weeks. in dry or sunny weather, water every day. If it is cool or raining, check every other day and water only when the soil by the root ball feels dry.
• Week three to about twelve. a good soaking two to three times a week. Better one good soaking than a little every day, as that sends the roots down to the depth.
• After about three months. only in drought or heat. Keep checking through the first summer, even if the plant already seems to have taken.

An established yew, more than two years in the same spot, manages fine in normal years without extra water. In a dry summer you can safely give such an older plant a good soaking once too, certainly when the needles start to go dull.

How much water you give each time depends mainly on the size of the plant. For root-balled yew, use this guideline:

For a hedge you reckon this up by the number of plants per linear metre. Take a small root ball at three plants per metre and 10 to 15 litres per plant, and you come to 30 to 45 litres per metre each time. If you plant bare-root or small stock close together, around five per metre, reckon on roughly 8 to 12 litres per linear metre each time. On sandy soil or in the heat you may be a little more generous everywhere.

In practice you do not need to measure this to the litre. A good garden watering can holds about 10 litres. For a small root ball, reckon on one to one and a half cans per plant, for a medium size one and a half to two and a half cans, and for a large root ball three cans or more. More important than the exact number is that the water really reaches the root ball and does not just wet the surface.

The soil type decides how often you water. Sandy soil drains quickly and holds little, so there you water more often and a touch more generously. Clay soil holds water for a long time, so there you water less often and watch that the plant does not end up sitting in a bathtub. How to deal with wet or poorly draining soil, you can read at the question 'My soil is wet or poorly draining, what should I do before I plant yew?'.

In some spots the soil dries out far faster than you think. Pay extra attention with:

• sandy soil
• a lot of wind
• full sun
• a spot under a canopy or roof overhang
• plants close against a fence or paving

The most common mistake is spraying a little every day. Then only the top layer stays wet, the roots do not go down, and at the first heatwave the plant goes under after all. But it can go the other way too. Yew hates wet feet. If the root ball stays soaking wet for weeks on end, it can start to rot. The soil should be moist, not a permanent mud bath. On clay soil that is the thing to watch, on sandy soil rarely.

Prune yew twice a year. The first time late May/early June, the second time late August/early September. If you want to do topiary, balls or figures for example, you can give an extra light trim in between to keep the shape tight. Prune preferably no later than mid-September, and certainly do not cut back hard late in the season. In a mild autumn late September is still fine, but after that you run the risk of the yew shooting again. That young growth then no longer has enough time to harden off before the frost.

Sharp matters more than expensive. Whatever you choose, it has to be sharp. Blunt shears do not cut the needles but tear them apart, and those ragged edges turn brown. Cheap but sharp shears give a nicer result than an expensive blunt pair. So sharpen or replace in good time.

The common types in a row:

• Hand hedge shears. two long blades, hand-operated. Lots of control, nice and quiet, fine for a short hedge. For a long hedge it becomes heavy work for your arms.
• Electric or cordless hedge trimmer. for a somewhat longer hedge this saves a lot of time and effort. A cordless trimmer is light and without a cable, mains power is stronger but you drag a cable along. For an average garden hedge usually the best choice.
• Hand shears. for topiary, balls, cones and spirals. You work more slowly but far more precisely. Bypass shears, with blades that slide past each other, cut more cleanly than anvil shears and are the better choice for living green.
• Telescopic or pole shears. for a tall hedge or tall shape an extension pole saves you climbing the ladder. A little less control, but safer for the high work.
• Loppers or secateurs. for the odd branch that is too thick for the hedge trimmer.

Start with cleaning. After a pruning there is plant sap, dirt and, with yew, often sticky resin on the blades. Wipe the coarse stuff off and wash the blades with warm water and a little washing-up liquid. Stubborn resin comes loose with a cloth and some white spirit or turpentine. Rinse afterwards and dry the blades well.

Disinfecting you do separately, and especially if you have cut into diseased or affected wood. Wipe the clean blades with alcohol of about 70 percent, sold as surgical spirit or methylated spirit. That works fast and evaporates without leaving much behind. A diluted bleach solution can also be used, but bleach attacks the metal, so rinse and dry straight afterwards. If you have cut away diseased branches, disinfect in between too, not only at the end.

Finally, the maintenance. Dry tools do not rust, so never put them away wet. Rub the blades now and then with a thin film of machine oil or vegetable oil against rust and to keep cutting smoothly. And keep them sharp. Sharp shears make a clean cut, and a clean cut heals faster and is less prone to disease than a ragged one.

Absolutely, and yew is even ideally suited to it. The fine, dense branching and the slow, even growth pattern make yew ideal for balls, cones, spirals and other shapes. You see it in castle gardens and country houses, but it works just as well in an ordinary garden. Start with a young plant and prune into the shape you want from the start. The earlier you begin guiding it, the nicer and tighter the result.

If you do not prune a yew hedge, it grows slowly but steadily into a broad, loose structure. After a few years the hedge becomes full and broad at the top, but ever barer at the bottom because the inside gets too little light. You are then left with a hedge that is green on the outside but hollow and brown inside. As a solitary tree or freely growing shrub that is no problem, but for a tight, dense hedge regular pruning is necessary.

Yew does not get better from a lot of fertiliser. Once the hedge is well established, an annual layer of compost is often enough, or at most some light organic fertiliser in spring. Then choose something mild, such as dried cow manure pellets or a yew or conifer fertiliser. Sharp fertiliser like fresh chicken manure gives too much nitrogen and can scorch young roots. You feed from late winter until the new growth starts. Autumn feeding is out of the question. If you do it anyway, the plant still makes young, soft growth, and that freezes in winter.

The soil determines a lot. On sand, feeding washes out fast, so a little extra feeding in spring is more worthwhile there. On clay or loam the problem is rarely feeding but air and drainage. Put the emphasis there on structure and drainage.

Did the plant already get compost or fertilised garden soil when planting? Then extra fertiliser at the start is usually not needed. Do not overdo nitrogen. That gives soft, sappy foliage that is more prone to frost and disease.

One thing first, because it saves money. Yew does not get better from a lot of fertiliser. An annual layer of compost is enough for most hedges. See fertiliser as a supplement on poor soil, not as standard fare. And never overdo nitrogen, because that gives soft, sappy foliage that is prone to frost and disease. How often and how much, you can read under the question 'Should I feed yew?'.

Organic fertiliser comes from plant or animal material. It works slowly, because the soil life has to break it down first, and that is exactly what feeds the soil and improves the structure. For yew this is the nicest group. The common types:

Fresh chicken manure you leave alone. It is packed with nitrogen and too sharp for young roots.

Artificial fertiliser, also called mineral fertiliser, gives the feeding in direct form, without the soil life being involved. It works fast, but does nothing for the structure of your soil. On the bag you often see three numbers, the NPK value. Nitrogen (N) is for foliage and growth, phosphorus (P) for the roots, potassium (K) for sturdiness. For yew you rarely need artificial fertiliser. If you do want to use it, choose a slow-release granule and go easy on the nitrogen.

There are also targeted products. A yew or conifer fertiliser is a ready-made granule tuned to conifers, safely dosed and handy. Kieserite is not ordinary feeding but pure magnesium, which helps with dull or brownish needles on sandy soil. And lime is not feeding but something to raise the acidity, which yew rarely needs. About kieserite and lime you can read more under the questions 'Should I feed yew?' and 'Does yew need lime, and does it like acidic soil?'.

Finally the difference between granule and liquid. Granular fertiliser works gradually and is usually handiest for a hedge in open ground, you scatter and that is it. Liquid fertiliser works faster but is short-lived, and is mainly practical for plants in a pot. For yew in the garden you keep to granules or simply compost.

If you plant in autumn, you want the roots to establish quietly in cool, moist soil. So no fertilised garden soil and no extra fertiliser. Work compost or unfertilised garden soil through the soil. In spring you see how the hedge comes out. If it stands fresh green, feeding is often not needed. Only on poor sandy soil or with visibly slow growth is some extra feeding in spring worthwhile.

With spring planting the plant goes straight into the growing season, so you may feed lightly. Do it with judgement. Only on poor or visibly weak soil, and with an ordinary organic fertiliser, not heavy on nitrogen. If enough compost is already worked in, the plant has enough for now. Fertilised garden soil never pure, and do not push it. A quiet start with good soil and water works better than a lot of fertiliser.

Mulching is covering the bare soil around the plant with a layer of organic material, for example bark, wood chips or cocoa shells. It is not compulsory, but it is smart. Such a layer of 5 to 8 cm keeps the soil moist, suppresses weeds and buffers temperature swings. Especially with young plantings and on dry sandy soil, mulch makes a big difference.

Yew prunings are poisonous and must not be left lying in places where children or animals can get at them. Dried needles are at least as poisonous as fresh ones, so even on the compost heap it is a risk if pets or livestock come near. In most councils the prunings may go with the green waste or to the recycling centre. Not sure? Get in touch with your council.

Perhaps you have heard that you could hand in yew prunings for the making of cancer medicine. That was true for years, because the needles of Taxus baccata contain a raw material for chemotherapy. That collection stopped in 2025. For the medicines a different yew species is now used that does not grow here and contains much more active substance. So you no longer have to keep your prunings aside for it.

An established yew (more than two years in the same spot) is tougher than most people think. Yew occurs naturally on dry woodland edges and on limestone rocks, and can take quite a lot. But in prolonged heat and drought, as we see more and more often in recent years, even a mature yew can become stressed. Watch for the early signs. The needles go dull and lose their shine, young shoots feel limp, and the green takes on a slightly greyish haze. If you step in with water then, you prevent the needles from turning brown.

With new plantings it is a different story. Young plants have no deep root system yet and are completely dependent on water that you give. Certainly in hot summers that is the difference between establishing and dying.

A factor that is often underestimated is wind. Biting or persistent wind dries out the needles, even if the soil seems moist enough. In winter that is extra treacherous. The ground is frozen, the roots cannot take up moisture, but the wind does draw moisture from the needles. If your yew stands on an exposed spot, bear that in mind when watering and consider a windbreak in the first years.

The growth rate of yew is on average 15 to 25 cm a year, depending on the position, soil type and care. That is slower than many other hedging plants, but the advantage is that a yew hedge grows compact and dense and needs less pruning to stay in shape.

Yew is one of the longest-living trees in Europe. There are specimens in England and Wales estimated at more than a thousand years old. In an average garden a yew hedge will last for generations. It is literally an investment for life.

In theory Taxus baccata can grow into a tree of 15 metres or more. As a hedge, yew is usually kept at 1 to 2.5 metres, but you can prune it to any height you want. Even hedges of 3 to 4 metres are easily manageable.

A yew hedge can be kept at almost any width, which is one of the big advantages over laurel or conifer, for example. A common width is 40 to 60 cm, but you can also keep yew at 30 cm wide if you prune consistently. That makes yew ideally suited to narrow gardens, paths and spots where you do not want to lose a centimetre.

If you let a yew hedge grow completely freely, it gets broader by itself. A mature, unpruned specimen can easily reach one and a half metres wide. But that is rarely the intention with a hedge. With two trims a year you keep it exactly as narrow as you want.

No. Yew is evergreen and keeps its needles all year round. That is exactly what makes yew so suitable as a hedging plant. You have privacy and a green look in winter too. Yew does shed some of its older needles on the inside of the plant in autumn. These go yellow and fall. That is normal and part of the natural renewal of the foliage.

It is normal, though, for yew to look a little different in winter than in summer. The colour often goes a bit duller and darker, and the green can turn slightly brownish or bronze. That is not a disease but a natural reaction to cold and short daylight. As soon as spring begins and the temperature rises, the colour comes back by itself.

Yew is a late starter. Where many other plants come into leaf in March or April, yew only starts making new shoots somewhere in April or May, depending on the weather and the position. That new growth is recognisable by the light green, soft needle tips at the ends of the branches.

Many people take fright in early spring because their yew still looks exactly as it did in winter, while the rest of the garden is already going green. That is normal. As long as the needles are dark green and firm, there is nothing wrong. Yew simply takes its time.

That depends on the starting size and the planting distance. With small bare-root stock (20 to 50 cm) at 5 plants per metre it takes about three to four years before the hedge is really dense. With larger root-balled plants (60 to 100 cm) at 3 plants per metre you can have a closed hedge within one to two seasons. Larger starting sizes of a metre or more often close up in the first growing season.

You can, but it is a long-haul business. Yew cuttings root slowly, often only after six to twelve months, and not every cutting takes. After rooting it still takes years before you have a plant big enough for a hedge. Professionally grown yew from open ground has a head start of years and a root system that is far better developed.

Below are the most used hedging plants alongside yew, on the points a choice usually comes down to.

Hornbeam and beech hold dead brown leaves in winter. They are not evergreen, but not bare either.

Absolutely. Since box tree moth and box blight have been destroying more and more box hedges, many garden owners are switching to yew. Like box, yew is evergreen, excellent for topiary and grows compact and dense. The big difference is that yew has no trouble from box tree moth or box blight and so is a lower-maintenance and more durable alternative.

Many people hesitate between yew and cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus). Below you see them side by side.

For a slim, tight hedge that takes little space, yew is the better choice. If you want a broad, green wall quickly and the width does not matter, laurel can be an option.

The biggest difference is in the foliage through the year. Yew is evergreen and keeps its green needles all year, in winter too. Hornbeam and beech lose their leaves, but often hold the withered brown foliage all winter, certainly as a young or pruned hedge. Only when the new leaves come out in spring does the old fall off. That fallen leaf then has to be cleared up. With yew you do not have that spring leaf fall.

Hornbeam and beech are often confused, but they are two different plants. Hornbeam belongs to the birch family, beech is a true beech. Both exist in a green and a copper form, and copper hornbeam colours red-brown from the start. You recognise them by the leaf. That of hornbeam is smaller, slightly toothed and wrinkled. That of beech is larger, smoother and has a glossy edge.

Hornbeam and beech grow faster and are therefore at height sooner. Yew grows more slowly, but steadily and densely. If you are in a hurry for a tall screen, you are often finished sooner with hornbeam or beech. If you want a tight, fine hedge that you keep in shape for years, yew is the one.

Soil and moisture play a part too, and the three differ considerably there. Hornbeam is the most versatile. It tolerates heavier and wetter soil best of the three, and can cope reasonably well with drier spells too. Yew and beech both want well-draining soil and have little use for wet feet, each for their own reason. With yew it is the risk of root rot, with beech the shallow root system that copes badly with oxygen-poor, wet soil. With drought it is different. Yew holds out best then. Beech is the most sensitive, with brown leaf edges and early leaf loss, and is under pressure in the drier summers of recent years.

Pruning is part of all three. A hedge only stays tight if you prune it regularly, whether that is yew, hornbeam or beech. The difference is in cutting back hard on bare old wood. Yew reshoots there most reliably. Hornbeam does so reasonably too, but less predictably. Beech reshoots badly on bare old wood. Bear in mind too that yew is strongly poisonous, certainly to horses and livestock. Hornbeam and beech do not pose that danger.

Finally, the lifespan. Yew can become hundreds of years old, and in Europe there are yews of more than a thousand years. Beech and hornbeam do not get nearly that old. As a hedge they are fine for a human lifetime, but a yew hedge can last for generations.

Unlike hornbeam and beech, yew and holly are both evergreen. They keep their foliage all year, so you have a green screen winter and summer and no brown winter leaf to clear in spring.

The biggest difference is in the foliage. Yew has soft, fine needles you can walk right past. Holly has hard, glossy foliage that is prickly in most hedging types. That makes holly less pleasant along a path or play area, but strong precisely as an impenetrable, intruder-resistant hedge. A yew hedge is nice where people come close, a holly hedge keeps people and animals at a distance.

Pruning is possible with both, but the result differs. With its fine needles, yew gives the tightest, most even cut surface and is the plant for topiary. With holly the larger leaves are partly cut through by the hedge trimmer, which looks a little messy for a while with brown cut edges. If you want holly really tight, you work with hand shears rather than a hedge trimmer. Prune holly preferably in late spring, just before the new growth hardens, then the cut edges show less.

Holly is known for its red berries, a fine winter ornamental value and loved by birds. Those berries only come on female plants, and then only if there is a male holly nearby. Yew also has red berries on female plants. What exactly those are, you can read under the question 'What are those red berries on my yew?'. Bear in mind that the berries and seeds of both are poisonous, in yew more strongly than in holly.

If you want holly as a hedge, blue holly is a much-requested choice, the Ilex meserveae 'Blue Prince' and 'Blue Princess'. These are extra hardy and have blue-green, glossy foliage. The 'Blue Princess' bears red berries, but only if there is a 'Blue Prince' nearby to pollinate. In terms of position, yew and holly are alike. Both can be in sun and partial shade, and both want well-draining soil without wet feet.

Yew is green all year. Privet is semi-evergreen. In a mild winter privet keeps most of its foliage, but in a cold winter it drops a fair amount. For a screen that stays dense and green in winter too, yew is more reliable.

Privet is one of the fastest hedging plants there is, and cheap. You have a green wall with it quickly. Yew grows more slowly and is dearer, but you get that back in years of calm and a hedge that stays tight.

It is precisely that fast growth that makes privet need more maintenance. If you do not prune it two to three times a year, it soon goes thin and bare at the bottom. Yew grows more calmly and often stays neat and dense with one trim a year. So in the long run yew is the less laborious of the two.

Privet is otherwise not fussy and copes with almost any soil, in the city too. Privet does have strong, greedy roots that take water and feeding from the plants beside it. Yew wants well-draining soil without wet feet, but leaves the border around it more in peace.

A difference you do not always expect is the flowering. Privet flowers in June and July with white panicles that are strongly scented. One person finds that lovely, another too heavy, and for some people that scent is a reason not to take privet. Yew has no conspicuous flowering and no scent.

Bear in mind that both are poisonous, yew in all parts except the red flesh, privet in the foliage and black berries. Those black berries are poisonous to people, but birds eat them readily. And where a privet hedge lasts a few decades, a yew hedge can last for generations.

Like yew, thuja and leylandii are green all year. The big difference is in what happens when you cut them back.

Yew reshoots on old, bare wood. If you cut back too far, or a section has gone bare, it usually just fills in again. With thuja and leylandii that is not possible. If you cut into the bare, brown wood, that spot stays bare. A conifer that is bare at the bottom or inside, you will not get green again. That is why yew is far more forgiving and you can still bring it back into shape after years.

Leylandii is one of the very fastest hedging plants and gets extremely tall and broad without tight upkeep. Many neighbour disputes over too-tall hedges are about leylandii. Thuja also grows hard. Conifers like leylandii moreover have greedy, shallow roots that suck up a lot of water and feeding from the plants beside them. Yew grows more slowly and so stays more manageable for a neat, measured hedge.

There are also more slowly growing thujas, such as the Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd', popular as a neat hedge. These are easier to manage, but they too do not reshoot on bare wood, so the drawback when cutting back hard remains.

Conifers can discolour unattractively. Thuja often turns bronze to brown in winter, and with drought or disease bare brown patches appear that no longer recover. Yew stays deep green all year and does recover.

Bear in mind that yew is strongly poisonous. Thuja too contains a poisonous substance, thujone, although it is less acutely dangerous than yew. And where a conifer hedge usually lasts a few decades and then has to be replaced, a yew hedge can last for generations.

The biggest difference is the height. Lonicera nitida stays low by nature and rarely gets higher than two metres, even if you do not prune it. That makes it a nice plant for a low hedge, in the front garden for example. But it goes no further than that. Yew you can keep just as low for such a front-garden hedge, and at the same time raise to three, four metres or higher for a sturdy privacy hedge. Few hedging plants can do both. That versatility is one of yew's strong points.

For a low hedge, Lonicera nitida is a fine option. It has small, dark green foliage, grows fast and is cheap, and is often offered in garden centres as an alternative to box.

On two points Lonicera nitida actually scores a little more widely than yew. It grows on almost any soil type, from sand to clay and peat, as long as no water stands. Yew is a little fussier there, certainly on heavy, wet clay. And Lonicera nitida tolerates shade a little better still than yew. For a dark spot, along a north wall or under trees for example, it is even slightly more suitable.

In pruning they are more alike than you would think. Both reshoot on old wood, so you can cut both back hard and they come back. The difference is in the rhythm. Lonicera nitida grows so fast that you have to cut it two to three times a year to keep it tight, and it soon falls open untidily, certainly under a load of snow. Yew keeps its shape far longer and is often neat with one trim a year.

In terms of diseases and pests, both are fairly healthy. Yew is remarkably robust as long as the soil drains well, with root rot in wet soil as the main weakness. With Lonicera nitida the weak point is not so much disease, but that it can go bare and untidy at the bottom and is then hard to get nicely dense again. Aphids can occur and cause curling leaf tips, but are rarely a serious problem.

That falling open also has to do with the lifespan. A clipped hedge of Lonicera nitida often goes untidy after ten to fifteen years and is then replaced. A yew hedge can last fifty or a hundred years and actually gets sturdier and finer over the years. Want to plant once and then have a tight hedge for decades, then yew is the choice.

Another difference. Yew is poisonous, Lonicera nitida is not. For a garden with animals or young children that can weigh in.

Ilex crenata, the Japanese holly, has small, glossy foliage that strongly resembles box. That makes it the best-known box replacement for a low, tight hedge, balls or topiary. But like box, Ilex crenata stays low. For a tall hedge or boundary it is not the plant. Yew you can keep just as low and tight, and at the same time raise into a tall hedge. That whole range from low to high you get with yew from one plant. Whether yew itself is a good box replacement, you can read under the question 'Is yew a good alternative to box?'.

On soil, yew is the easier of the two. Yew tolerates many soil types, calcareous too, as long as it is not too wet. Ilex crenata is fussier. It wants well-draining, rather acidic and humus-rich soil, and dislikes lime and wet feet. On the wrong soil it goes yellow or gets root problems. Watch out for a pitfall here. Box actually likes lime, Ilex crenata does not. If you plant Ilex crenata in the old box soil without improving it well first, it can do badly there.

Both prune and keep their shape well, and both reshoot on old wood. Ilex crenata grows slowly, like box, and so stays nicely compact. Yew also grows calmly and keeps its shape long.

From our own experience we know that a young Ilex crenata often stands still for a few years after planting before it gets going, and that it is sensitive to severe frost. Yew is clearly hardier and usually also gets going faster after planting.

Another difference. Yew is strongly poisonous, and the berries of Ilex crenata are slightly poisonous. For a garden with animals or young children that can weigh in.

Yes. Taxus baccata 'Semperaurea' has yellow-green foliage and gives a lighter accent in the garden. Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata Robusta' grows columnar with dark green foliage. There are also forms with golden-yellow needle tips, such as 'Elegantissima'. These coloured forms usually grow a little more slowly than ordinary green yew.

Taxus baccata is the native European yew, which occurs here naturally and has been used for hedges and topiary for centuries. Taxus media is a cross between Taxus baccata and the Japanese Taxus cuspidata. The difference is mainly in the growth habit.

We supply Taxus baccata, because for hedging purposes in the Dutch climate it is simply the best choice.

Botanists do not agree on the exact number. Most settle on about nine species, a much-used list comes to ten or twelve, and one researcher even counted twenty-four. The problem is that the species closely resemble one another and are told apart mainly by their origin. In the past they were therefore sometimes seen as subspecies of one yew.

The best-known species in a row:

• Taxus baccata. the common or European yew, native to Europe as far as North Africa and West Asia. This is ours.
• Taxus cuspidata. the Japanese yew, from Japan, Korea and north-east Asia. Well able to withstand severe cold.
• Taxus brevifolia. the Pacific yew, from the west of North America. The cancer medicine taxol was once extracted from its bark.
• Taxus wallichiana. the Himalayan yew, from the mountains of Asia.
• Taxus canadensis. the Canadian yew, a low shrub from north-east North America.

There are also a few rarer species from China, Mexico and Florida. And there is a much-used cross, Taxus media. It arose around 1900 in America from the European baccata and the Japanese cuspidata, and forms the basis of many garden cultivars.

The real work is in the cultivars. There are more than four hundred named, almost all derived from baccata or cuspidata. A few you often hear:

• Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata', the Irish yew. a narrow, upright column. Discovered around 1780 by a farmer in Ireland and propagated by cuttings ever since. Because the original plant was female, all true Irish yews bear berries.
• Taxus media 'Hicksii'. a popular columnar form for narrow hedges, usually female and so with berries.
• Taxus media 'Hillii'. almost the same form, but male, so without berries. That one already came up with the berry-free hedge.
• Golden yews. selections with yellow-green or golden-yellow foliage. More about that you can read under the question 'Are there yew varieties in a different colour?'.

And us? We keep to the wild Taxus baccata from open ground. Not because it cannot be otherwise, but because that is the species that belongs here naturally. It is made for our climate and our soil, hardy, shade-tolerant and lives to a great age. No bred surprise, but the tried-and-tested basis for a hedge that lasts for generations.

We are happy to sell yew, but not if it is the wrong plant for your situation. Fair is fair, in a few cases you are better off choosing something else.

On structurally wet soil that stays waterlogged or flooded for long in winter. Yew tolerates a lot, but not roots that stand permanently in water. In such soil they rot. Improve the drainage first, or choose a plant that can cope with wet soil.

In narrow containers or pots. Yew has a coarse, strong root system that needs open ground. In a cramped container it lags and becomes sensitive to drought and frost.

Right next to a paddock with horses, sheep or goats. Yew is deadly poisonous to these animals, the prunings too. If your plot borders a pasture directly, yew is simply not worth the risk.

And finally, if you expect a dense hedge of three metres within two years. Yew grows steadily, not fast. If you want height very quickly, yew is a disappointment. For those with patience it is precisely an asset for generations.

Many people know yew only as a hedging plant, but yew does just as well as a free-standing plant in the garden. A specimen yew can grow into a stately, evergreen tree that lasts for decades. You can also set it as a clipped ball, cone, spiral or other shape in the lawn or border. That gives your garden structure and green all year, in winter too when the rest of the garden is bare.

If you let a yew grow freely, it develops into a broad, dense shrub or tree with a fine, natural shape. That asks for hardly any maintenance. The odd dead branch out and otherwise let it grow. Want a tight shape, then you trim it two to three times a year, just like a hedge.

Yew is dioecious, there are separate male and female plants, and only the female get the red berries. But you cannot see that from the needles, the colour or the shape of the plant. For most of the year the sex is simply invisible.

If the plant is old enough to flower, you can look at the underside of the branches in early spring. Male plants then have clear, round, light-yellow balls of a few millimetres. Tap them and a little cloud of yellow pollen comes off. Female plants have very small, green flowers of barely a millimetre, like minuscule little pine cones. They hardly stand out and give no pollen. If you see no yellow balls in March or April while the plant is mature, you almost certainly have a female.

It is the wild Taxus baccata, not a selected cultivar. So males and females simply stand mixed in the field. With young plants, such as bare-root stock or small pot plants, the sex cannot yet be determined physically, because they are not yet mature enough to flower. So we cannot guarantee in advance whether a young baccata will become male or female. Fair is fair.

A yew flowers and bears only on last year's wood. The new shoots of this year only yield flower buds the following spring. If you cut those shoots off each time before they set buds, it never gets that far. No flower, no berry.

Where an ordinary yew hedge can manage with one or two trims, you cut a berry-free hedge tight at least three times a year. The rhythm looks like this:

• First trim, May or June. Prune straight after the first growth spurt, preferably still before the longest day around 21 June.
• Second trim, July or August. Cut tight in between as soon as you see new shoots sticking out.
• Third trim, September. A last maintenance trim, so the hedge goes into winter tight and sets no buds for spring.

Our baccata is the wild species, not a selected cultivar. In a batch, male and female plants simply stand mixed, and only the female get berries. So a baccata hedge is naturally a mix, and some berries can always come in it. With the pruning regime above you hold that back to almost nothing.

It starts with prevention. A yew in a spot that suits it, with good drainage and not too wet at the roots, and not overfed with nitrogen, simply has little trouble with diseases and pests. Many problems are really position problems, not a pest you have to spray away.

If something does come up, there is almost always a gentle solution. Against the larvae of the vine weevil you use nematodes, a biological control. Mealybug you wipe or spray off, or you dab it with a little alcohol. Spider mite you tackle with water and, if needed, predatory mites. And brown or yellow patches usually point to the soil or the roots, not a pest, so no poison helps there but better drainage or feeding. The separate questions in this chapter go through that one by one.

So a chemical product is rarely needed, and for private individuals the range is limited anyway. Reach for it at most if everything fails and the plant really threatens to go under, and then always read the packaging carefully first. In most gardens the spray can stays in the cupboard, and that is just as well, for you and for the little creatures you actually want to keep.

Browning is the most common problem with yew, and there are several possible causes:

• Wet feet. The number one cause. Yew roots rot in long-standing water. The needles turn brown from the inside out and from the base of the plant upwards. Check the drainage.
• Drought. Especially with young plants or yew in narrow strips beside paving. The needles first go dull, then brown. With drought the discolouration starts on the outside and the tips of the plant, because that is where most evaporation takes place.
• Road salt. Yew along roads or drives can take damage from road salt in winter. The damage only becomes visible in spring.
• Frost damage. After a severe winter needles can turn brown, but yew usually recovers from this by itself in spring.
• Biting wind. Persistent cold wind dries out the needles, certainly in winter when the ground is frozen and the roots cannot take up moisture. Together with fierce winter sun this is called winter scorch, although nothing actually burns. The needles evaporate moisture that the frozen ground cannot replace, so the plant dries out. The damage looks like drought damage and sits mainly on the windward or sunny side.
• Phytophthora. An aggressive root rot that can kill whole plants. Recognisable by a browning that spreads fast, often combined with a wet position.

That is the vine weevil, or black vine weevil (Otiorhynchus sulcatus). The adult beetles are active at night and eat half-round notches out of the needle edges. That is unsightly but not life-threatening. The real danger is the larvae, fat white C-shaped grubs that eat the roots underground. A heavy larval infestation can kill a whole plant.

Besides the vine weevil, chafer grubs (larvae of the cockchafer and other scarab beetles) can also attack the roots of yew. Chafer grubs are mainly in lawns, but if your yew hedge stands next to the lawn and you have chafer grubs there, the chances are they will eat the yew roots too. The damage is comparable. The plant weakens, goes dull and can eventually die.

Those white tufts look like little wisps of cotton wool and usually sit on the twigs, in the forks of the branches or close to the stem. That is the waxy protection of the mealybug, with the creatures underneath. They suck sap from the plant, so the shoots yellow and it grows less fresh.

Often you see more around it. The branches go sticky from the honeydew the bugs excrete, and on that a black sooty mould sometimes appears. If ants are running over the plant, that is a sign too. They keep the bugs like livestock and protect them.

Mealybug occurs on yew less often than the vine weevil or fungus, but it is not ruled out. It turns up especially in sheltered spots with little air movement, on plants that are already weakened, after a long dry spell, and on yew in a pot or tight against a wall or fence.

You tackle it preferably without heavy means. With a light infestation you wipe the tufts off or rinse them away with a firm jet of water. If twigs are full of them, cut them out. If that does not help enough, you can treat the plant with lukewarm water and a little soft soap. Do not do that in full sun. And give natural enemies such as ladybirds and parasitic wasps room, because they clear up mealybug for you.

Spider mite, or red spider mite, is not an insect but a very small spider-like creature of barely half a millimetre. With the naked eye you can hardly see the animals, but you can see the result of their work. They suck plant sap from the needles, so the green loses its fresh colour and goes dull, greyish or bronze. Hold a white sheet of paper under a twig and tap it, and you see the minuscule dots move.

Spider mite likes warm, dry and dusty. A yew against a warm wall, under a canopy or in a sheltered corner where little rain reaches, is most at risk. Especially in a dry, hot summer it can go fast. A yew in a normal, not too dry spot rarely has trouble with it, because spider mite and moisture go badly together.

Do not confuse spider mite with other problems. A dull film with fine webbing points to spider mite. A white, fluffy tuft is mealybug, which you can read about under the question 'There is a white, fluffy film on my yew. What is that?'. If the whole plant goes yellow or dull without webbing, look at the question on why a yew hedge goes yellow or dull, because then it is often in the soil or the feeding.

Besides Phytophthora (see above), Pestalotiopsis occurs, also called yew dieback. You then see individual branches that turn brown and die, often after a period of stress (drought, damage, poor drainage). Prune affected branches away generously and improve the growing conditions.

Yes, that can happen. Dog urine is concentrated and contains a lot of nitrogen and salts. In the spot where the same plants are repeatedly urinated against, needles can turn brown and branches die. Especially low hedges and the bottom of larger hedges are vulnerable.

With cats the damage is usually less visible. Cats do not urinate against the hedge the way dogs do, but dig a little hole at the foot of the plant. Cat urine is more concentrated than that of dogs, though. If several cats keep using the same spot, the soil there can acidify and the roots can take damage.

Yes, and this is a silent cause of death that we see more often than you would think. Products based on glyphosate (such as Roundup) are non-selective. They kill everything green. If you spray weedkiller near your yew hedge and a little mist drifts towards the plants, that is enough to cause damage. The needles turn yellow to brown, often blotchy and uneven, and it can take weeks before you see the damage.

It can also go wrong through the soil. If you spray weedkiller on weeds in front of the hedge, the yew takes the product up through the roots.

Do not think natural means are automatically safe either. Vinegar is often used as a green alternative against weeds, but yew cannot stand it. It scorches the foliage and acidifies the soil around the roots.

Yellowing is something different from browning and often has different causes:

• Nitrogen shortage. The most common reason. The plant gets too little feeding, especially on poor sandy soils. Some compost or organic fertiliser in spring usually solves this.
• Magnesium shortage. Needles go light green to yellowish, especially the older needles. Recognisable because the discolouration is not blotchy but even. Scatter kieserite (magnesium fertiliser) in spring.
• Chlorosis from wet feet. With long-wet soil the roots can no longer take up nutrients, even though they are present in the soil. The foliage then goes pale and yellowish. Improve the drainage.
• Natural needle drop. In autumn yew sheds some of its older needles on the inside. These go yellow and fall. That is completely normal and no cause for concern.

Root rot (usually caused by the fungus Phytophthora) starts underground and is therefore hard to spot early. The first signs above ground are needles that go dull and discolour from green to yellow-brown, often in a short time. The discolouration usually starts on one side or with a few plants in the row, not evenly across the whole hedge. If you pull gently at an affected plant, the root system gives way easily. Healthy roots sit firm, rotten roots are brown, soft and break off.

With the wetter winters of recent years this is an ever more important point. Yew is surprisingly resistant to dry summers, but far less so to a soil that stays saturated or waterlogged for weeks. The problem is not the water itself, but oxygen shortage. In a saturated soil there is no air left, and roots that cannot breathe die off. Root rot often follows.

The treacherous part is that the damage looks like drought damage. A yew with drowned, rotting roots can no longer take up water and goes dull and brown, exactly like a plant that is drying out. People then give even more water, while the soil is already saturated. So with browning in a wet period, do not look at the needles but at the soil. If it is sodden or the soil smells sour, then drowning is the cause and not drought.

The solution lies in drainage, not in less rain. On soil that stays structurally wet, you have to improve the drainage before planting or plant the yew raised.

A yew that does not grow is almost always a yew under stress. The most common causes:

• Just planted. In the first year yew puts its energy into root recovery, not into visible growth above ground. That is normal. Only in the second season do you see the plants really grow. Patience is the key word here.
• Drought stress. Too little water curbs growth directly. The plant survives, but does the minimum. Check whether the soil is still moist at 10 cm deep.
• Soil too wet. With long-wet roots the plant cannot take up feeding and the growth stalls. Check the drainage.
• Feeding shortage. Especially on poor sandy soil or in exhausted building ground, yew gets too little feeding. Some compost or organic fertiliser in spring helps.
• Too much shade. Yew grows in shade, but in very deep shade (under dense trees or against a north wall) the growth does slow down considerably.
• Root competition. Does the yew stand right next to a large tree or dense planting? Then the neighbours take the water and the feeding.

This is a frequently asked question. The plants came from the field together, stand in the same row, and yet one is ahead of the other. Usually that is not down to the plants, but to what is happening underground. Over a hedge of a few metres the soil can differ considerably.

The usual causes are a hidden patch of rubble or builder's sand the roots cannot get through, a compacted layer that holds back water and roots, a spot that is wetter than the rest, or more root competition from a nearby tree or shrub. Light plays a part too. A plant that stands more in the shade or in the wind grows more slowly than its neighbour in the sun and shelter.

It need not always be down to the soil, by the way. Sometimes there is an obstructive layer or a hidden obstacle under one plant that the roots cannot get past. And very occasionally the larvae of the vine weevil eat the roots of just that one plant, so it lags behind. If one stays behind while the rest grows on well, look at the roots too and at possible feeding damage.

Usually that uneven growing rights itself after a few years, certainly if you give the laggards a little extra attention. If a single plant clearly stays behind, dig carefully in the root zone to see whether there is rubble, an obstructive layer or wet soil.

Yew grows towards the light. The side that gets the most sun or the most open light puts on more growth and becomes denser. The shaded side lags behind. That can make a hedge lean or bulge on one side, especially when it stands against a wall, fence or building.

Sometimes it is not the light but the soil. A side that is wetter, drier or poorer than the rest grows differently. And at a corner or the end of a hedge there is often more light and air, so that spot grows faster. If it is separate plants that are out of step rather than one side, see the question 'Why does one yew grow faster than another in the same hedge?'.

You steer it back with pruning. Cut the strong, full side back a bit harder and the weak side lightly. The weak side then gets relatively more light and room to grow, and slowly catches up. Do that a few years running and the hedge straightens out. For how and when to prune, see the question 'When and how should I prune yew?'.

In heavy snowfall or glaze ice the weight can press the branches of a yew hedge apart or bend them down. That looks dramatic, but yew is resilient and recovers by itself in most cases as soon as the snow melts. With really heavy snow load, branches can tear or break, especially with broader hedges that catch a lot of snow on top.

These are the pests and the damage you see on the plant itself.

This happens below the ground, at the roots.

Chafer grubs and vine weevil larvae look alike and both eat roots, but they are different creatures. The chafer grub is the larva of a scarab beetle, such as the cockchafer or June beetle, and has six legs. The vine weevil larva is the larva of a weevil and has no legs. For the plant it makes little difference, for the control sometimes it does. When chafer grubs are active also differs per beetle species.

If you want to tackle the larvae of the vine weevil or chafer grubs biologically with nematodes, the soil has to be warm enough. Some nematodes, such as Steinernema kraussei, work from about 5 to 6 degrees soil temperature and can therefore be used in early spring or late autumn too. Heterorhabditis bacteriophora needs at least 16 degrees and works best in late summer, from around nineteen degrees.

The best moment for both pests is August to October, when the young larvae have just hatched and are still small and vulnerable. A second moment for vine weevil larvae is mid-March to late April, when the overwintered larvae become active again but are still weakened.

Yes, yew transplants well, even at a later age. The best period is from November to March, while the plant is dormant. Dig up as large a root ball as possible and prune the plant back hard on top to make up for the root loss.

Yes, and that is one of the big advantages of yew over other conifers. Where a conifer such as Leylandii or Thuja never reshoots on bare wood, yew does come back. Cut the hedge back hard, down to the bare wood if need be, and give the plant light and room. Within one to two growing seasons it reshoots with fresh green.

Almost always, and that is exactly what makes yew so special. Where other conifers such as Leylandii or Thuja never reshoot on bare wood, yew does come back. Even a hedge that has not been pruned for years and looks hopeless, you can cut back down to the old wood. Within one to two growing seasons it reshoots with fresh green.

First try to find out why that one plant did not make it. Was it root rot from poor drainage? Damage from weedkiller? Vine weevil larvae? If you do not solve the cause, the replacement plant runs the same risk. Remove the dead plant including as much of the old root system and the soil around it as possible, certainly if you suspect root rot.

Then look at how much room there really is between the neighbouring plants. You may want to plant back the same size, but the question is whether the root ball of a large plant still fits in the gap. The roots of the surrounding plants have spread by now and take up room. Sometimes a slightly smaller plant is the better choice. It fits more easily and grows on by itself.

Work the soil in the planting hole especially well with compost or fresh garden soil. The old soil is exhausted and the new plant needs a good start precisely. Plant in the regular planting season (September to April) and not in summer.

Yes, yew is poisonous. All parts of the plant contain taxine, a poisonous alkaloid that can be dangerous to people and animals even in small amounts. Only the red flesh of the yew berries is not poisonous, but the seeds inside are. So never eat the needles, seeds or bark of a yew.

It is good to see this in proportion, though. Being poisonous is the rule rather than the exception among ornamental plants. Oleander, foxglove, monkshood, laburnum and lily of the valley stand in countless gardens and are each poisonous, some at least as much as yew. So yew is not exceptionally dangerous. It simply asks for the same common sense as many other plants. Do not eat it and clear up the prunings tidily.

Yes, yew is poisonous to pets too. Dogs and cats rarely bite on yew needles, but the risk exists, certainly with young dogs that chew on everything. The poisonous substance taxine is in the needles, bark and seeds. If you suspect ingestion, contact the vet straight away.

Yes, and this cannot be stressed enough. Horses are extremely sensitive to taxine, the poison in yew. Even a small handful of needles or a few twigs of prunings can be fatal to a horse, and that within a few hours. There is no effective antidote. Cows, goats and sheep are also at risk, although they are a little less sensitive than horses.

The risk is not only in a yew hedge that borders the pasture. Prunings that blow over the fence into the pasture, or branches laid with the green waste beside the fence, are at least as dangerous. Dried branches and needles stay poisonous. The same danger applies to rabbits too, for that read the question 'Is yew dangerous to rabbits?'.

Yes, and just as with horses it can go wrong fast. Rabbits are very sensitive to taxine, the poison in the needles, bark and seeds. Even a small amount can be fatal, and there is no antidote. Dried needles and twigs stay just as poisonous as fresh ones.

Wild rabbits usually leave a yew alone, precisely because the plant is poisonous. The biggest risk is pet rabbits running loose in the garden or that you feed fresh greens. So never give a rabbit yew prunings as green feed, and make sure a loose rabbit cannot reach the hedge or the prunings.

Be especially careful with prunings. A few twigs that end up by the rabbit hutch or in the run are already dangerous. Clear up prunings straight away and do not throw them on a compost heap or a spot where rabbits can reach. The story around prunings is the same as with larger animals, you can read that under the question 'Is yew dangerous to horses and other farm animals?'.

Those are the fruits of the yew, bright red cup-shaped little fleshes (arils) that appear in autumn. Yew is dioecious. There are male and female plants. Only the female plants bear berries. If you have a hedge without berries, there are probably only male plants in it, or a male pollinator is missing nearby. The red flesh itself is not poisonous and tastes slightly sweet. But the seed inside is poisonous, like the needles and the bark. So do not eat them, and teach children to stay away from them.

The berry consists of two parts, by the way, and only the red flesh is non-poisonous. The hard pip in the middle is the seed and is actually full of taxine, the same poison as in the needles. Cleverly devised by the plant, because a bird eats the whole berry, digests the sweet flesh and excretes that rock-hard pip further on without the poison being released. A whole pip swallowed by accident usually just passes through people too. Biting it open or eating it, however, you must never do. If you want barely any berries because of children or animals, prune tight, as described under the question 'How do I keep my yew hedge berry-free?'.

Yes, and that is often overlooked. A yew hedge is one of the better shelters for garden birds. The dense, evergreen structure offers protection from wind, rain and predators, all year round. Blackbirds, dunnocks, robins and wrens like to nest in a yew hedge. In autumn the red berries are a food source for thrushes, blackbirds and other berry lovers.

Yew also attracts useful insects. The small, inconspicuous flowers in spring provide pollen for early pollinators. And the dense undergrowth of a yew hedge offers shelter for hedgehogs, toads and other garden animals.

Yew is dioecious, there are separate male and female plants. The pollen comes from the male. The red berries are only on the female. For a hedge that makes no difference, it grows just as nicely dense. The difference only counts if you definitely want berries, or definitely no berries because of children or animals.

The flowering falls between February and April. Yew goes in for wind pollination, so the pollen has to get into the air. Tap a male branch in spring and you see a yellow cloud of smoke rise. And it is not a little. An old yew of a hundred years gives off some 16 to 20 kilos of pollen per season. In Great Britain the species is therefore among the ten biggest pollen producers. The bees are happy with it, by the way, because they collect that early pollen for their brood at a time when little else is in flower.

Yew is known as poisonous, and rightly so. The foliage and seeds contain taxine, which you really must stay away from. With the pollen it is different. It contains the same substances, but research shows that you do not simply get acutely ill from breathing it in. So no reason to panic if a yew is standing next to you giving off pollen in spring.

What can happen is hypersensitivity. Yew pollen can play a part in hay fever in spring. There is also a known cross-reaction with birch pollen, and birch flowers in the same period. Anyone already sneezing in March does not always rightly blame the birch. The yew can lend a hand too.

Finally, a persistent story. You sometimes read that yew shoots off its pollen like a catapult. That is not true. Other plants have that trick, such as the mulberry and the dogwood. Yew sticks to ordinary wind pollination. Not spectacular, but effective, as you notice from those twenty kilos per tree.

The reflex is to rub, and that is precisely what you must not do. Rubbing pushes the needle in deeper and can scratch your cornea. Keep your hands away and stay calm.

Rinse the eye for five to ten minutes with a gentle stream of lukewarm, clean tap water. Tilt your head with the affected eye down, so the dirt runs out and not towards your other eye. Blink calmly while rinsing. Often the needle comes loose with this. If you wear contact lenses, take them out straight away.

If you see that the needle is really stuck, on the eye itself or on the coloured part, do not pull it out yourself. Cover the eye loosely with a clean piece of gauze or a plastic cup, so you do not rub it, and have a doctor look at it straight away.

Call your GP, or out of hours the out-of-hours GP service, if any of these apply:

• The needle is still stuck or you cannot get it out.
• You have ongoing pain or a sharp, stinging feeling.
• You see more blurred or less sharp.
• You are sensitive to light and screw your eye shut.
• The eye stays red, waters heavily or there is pus.
• It feels as if something is still in it, even after rinsing.

In doubt? Call anyway. With plant material in the eye, having it looked at once too often is better than once too little.

Just to be clear, this is not about poisoning. A needle in your eye is not a poison problem, for that you would have to take yew internally. It is about two other things. A needle can leave a small scratch on the cornea, and plant material brings bacteria and fungi that can cause an eye infection. Both treatable, often with drops or ointment, but that is exactly why you want to deal with it in good time.

Yew from open ground has a naturally grown root system that quickly feels at home in the garden. Unlike container plants, the roots have not circled round in a confined space, but spread wide in the soil. That gives a better start after planting. Plants from open ground are lifted in the planting season (September to April), while the yew is in winter dormancy. That is also exactly the ideal planting period.

Look for a healthy, dark green colour without brown or yellow patches. The plant should be firmly branched from the base. A yew that is only full at the top will never become a fine, full hedging plant. Check that the root ball is firm and does not fall apart. And see that there are no feeding marks from the vine weevil on the needles.

We are a nursery, not a garden centre. Open-ground yew stands in the ground and is only lifted after you have ordered it. That is deliberate. The shorter the time between lifting and replanting, the better the plant establishes. A yew that comes fresh out of the ground and stands in your garden the same day has the best start.

That does mean you cannot just drop by and take plants with you. They have to be lifted first, and that takes time. In peak season a few common sizes are sometimes ready, but do not count on it. So always order in advance, then we make sure your plants are ready on the agreed day.

Lifting is also sometimes postponed. After a few days of heavy rain a grower does not go onto the land, because wet soil compacts under the tractors. In frost there is no lifting either, frozen ground and frozen roots do not make good plants. And in unexpected heat in early spring a grower would rather wait, because that is better for the plants. Quality comes before speed.

Open-ground yew is only lifted while the plant is dormant. That is roughly September to April, the same season in which you plant it too. In summer the yew is in full growth and evaporates plenty of water. Freshly lifted, it would come through that heat badly. That is why there is no lifting in the summer months, and you collect your yew in the dormant season.

Within the season too, lifting does not happen in all conditions. After a few days of heavy rain, in frost or snow, or in an unexpectedly warm early spring, the work waits until the weather cooperates. Why that is better for the plant you can read under "Why do I have to order my yew plants in advance?".

It comes down to this: lifting happens when it is good for the plant, not when the calendar happens to say so. So sometimes we ask you for a few days' patience. That saves you a hedge left struggling.

From open ground come two forms. With a root ball the plant is lifted with a ball of soil around the roots and wrapped in hessian, firm and suitable for larger sizes and a full hedge in one go. Bare-root, also called bare-root stock, is the same open-ground plant without soil around the roots, by far the cheapest form for many metres of hedge. Both you plant in the dormant season, roughly from autumn to early spring, and not in frost. The big plus is in the roots. Because they have grown in real soil, the root mass is large and the plants make a strong start.

A yew in a pot has grown up in potting compost. The big advantage is the freedom in timing. You can plant all year round, outside the planting season too, as long as it is not freezing and you avoid extreme heat. Handy for small numbers, for a garden project that cannot wait for the season, or if you want to postpone planting.

But there is plenty on the other side. Pot is clearly dearer, because such a plant asks for years of extra labour, water and feeding in the nursery. And there are two things people often underestimate. The first is pot behaviour. A plant that stands long in a pot lets its roots circle round the pot shape, and after planting these sometimes keep growing in that circle instead of out into the garden. Then it roots on more slowly and stands less firmly. The second is drying out. Potting compost is airier than garden soil, dries out faster and, once bone dry, takes up water again only with difficulty. Precisely because you like to plant a pot plant in summer, that goes wrong if you then water too little. And there is a limit to the size. In a pot you never grow a yew as tall and substantial as in open ground, so for an immediately tall hedge or a large specimen a pot soon falls short. The largest sizes are only available with a root ball.

And watch out for a pitfall in buying. A pot plant can look beautiful above ground, green, tight and sale-ready, while below ground it is less firmly developed than a good open-ground plant with a root ball. Especially in the larger sizes. Fine above ground says nothing about what is underneath.

In short, a pot plant is not automatically easier or better, it still comes down to the position, the soil and the aftercare. If you want to be flexible about the timing, then a pot is nice. If you want a sturdy, more fully rooting and cheaper hedge, then you choose open ground. That is why we work with open-ground plants at the nursery.

That depends on your situation. Want a low hedge of 40 to 60 cm, in a front garden for example or as a border along a path? Then small bare-root stock (20 to 50 cm) is not only the cheapest choice, but also the most logical. Those plants grow in nicely compact at that height and do not have to go far up. Want a higher hedge for privacy instead, then larger plants with a root ball (60 to 100 cm or more) give faster results.

Do reckon that with small bare-root stock you need more plants per metre (5 per metre, against 2 to 3 with larger sizes), so the price difference per linear metre often turns out to be modest.

How we measure those heights, you can read in the question 'How do you determine the height of the yew?'.

Many people think we include the root ball or the bare roots in the height. We do not. The size you see with us is the height of the plant above the ground, measured from ground level to the top.

That is because we measure the plants in the field. There they simply stand in the ground, with the roots beneath. We measure from the ground to the top. With root-balled plants that is therefore from the top of the root ball. With bare-root stock it comes to the same thing, because those plants also stood with their roots in the ground when we measured.

That is a trade-off between time and money. Young bare-root stock is cheaper per plant, but you wait two to four years for a dense hedge. Larger plants give immediate results, but cost more. A middle way is plants of 60 to 80 cm with a root ball. These are affordable, give a closed hedge within one to two seasons, and establish well.

We deliberately do not supply ready-made hedge elements. Our plants come fresh from open ground and are planted individually. That gives the best start and the finest end result, because each plant can develop its own root system undisturbed.

That differs per size and per number of plants per metre. Small bare-root stock (about 5 plants per metre) is the cheapest option. Larger plants with a root ball cost more per plant, but you need fewer of them (2 to 3 per metre). Across the board, yew is comparable to other popular hedging plants, with the difference that a yew hedge lasts for generations with good care. That investment thereby earns itself back many times over.

That is right. Yew is often dearer per plant than a fast-growing conifer such as the Leyland cypress or thuja. That is not in the margin, but in the cultivation. Yew grows steadily and simply needs more years in the field before it is at size. All that time costs land, water, pruning and care. A fast conifer is at delivery height in a fraction of that time and is therefore cheaper to grow.

You get a lot back for that. Yew grows denser and more compact, prunes tightly, and comes back even after a hard prune on old wood, something most conifers cannot do. If you cut a thuja or cypress back too far, a bare, brown patch is left there that no longer fills in. A yew hedge lasts for generations with good care, while fast conifers often go bare from the bottom after fifteen to twenty years and have to be replaced.

Reckoned per year, yew is therefore often actually cheaper. You pay more once, not again every twenty years.

That is a question we get often, and the answer is that it varies. Small bare-root stock (bundled per 10 plants) fits without problems in the boot of an ordinary car, even in larger numbers. With root-balled plants it depends on the size of the plant, the number you need and the size of your car. A few root-balled plants of 60 to 80 cm still fit in the back, but with larger sizes or larger numbers you soon need a trailer or van.

Small bare-root stock (20 to 50 cm) is light and fits easily in the boot of an ordinary car. We bundle bare-root stock per 10 plants, so it takes little room. Always transport it in the car, not on an open trailer. Even on a short trip the unprotected roots dry out in the driving wind, and you do not recover from that. Afraid of soil in the car? Lay plastic in the boot to protect the car. But do not put the plants themselves in sealed plastic bags, because then they smother. A damp cloth over the roots is fine.

Larger plants with a root ball are a different story in terms of weight. A yew of one metre tall with a root ball soon weighs 15 to 25 kilos each, and with larger sizes that runs up further. If you take twenty or thirty of those plants, you are talking about hundreds of kilos. Then bring a trailer or van and someone to help load. Root-balled plants can take the wind on an open trailer, because the roots are protected by the soil of the root ball.

Our plants can only be collected at the nursery. We of course help with loading.