Our bushes are very overgrown.

A. You can prune healthy yews (Taxus spp.) back quite severely with no problem. You can easily reduce their size by one-half to three-quarters.

This is where you should cut it using hand pruners, making sure the cut is flush against the attaching branch.

Such severe pruning is best done in early spring so they have spring and summer to recover. They will respond by throwing up a lot of new stumpcut.barted Reading Time: 3 mins.

May 26, Step 1, Start pruning yews in late March or early April. This is right before new growth will start to take place. If the yews are growing vigorously, you may need to prune them again in late June.[1] X Research source Avoid pruning yews in the fall, as this will make them more vulnerable to winter stumpcut.bar 2, Cut out diseased, dead, or broken branches.

Look for shoots that have broken off, or 95%(43). Aug 04, In this short video clip from Gardeners’ World, Monty Don explains how to grow yew from cuttings. First he shows you which stems to select to produce vigorous new plants, then what compost mix to plant them in so they root quickly and don’t rot.

He also demonstrates two different ways to prepare the cuttings to produce either an upright or a bushy plant. Feb 22, Yews are one of the easiest evergreens to prune and reliably sprout on bare wood, so if you cut your yews back severely or shear them into a hedge form, they'll fill out quickly. Late winter or.