collecting a "wild" yew from my yard

[amatbrewer]

Any advice on collecting a yew from the “wild”? [If a tree ignored for years in my front yard can be considered “wild”]

I have been contemplating collecting a yew from my front landscaping. I plan to rework the front landscaping and this plant will not be part of the new design, so regardless it is going to go at some point.
I have never worked with Yew’s before so am not entirely sure what the best process or timing would be. I have tried to search for answers but keep finding conflicting information. “spring”, “winter”, “all year”, “don’t ever prune in the summer/fall” –ARGH!-

I assume it is about 10 years old (it was probably planted a couple of years before we purchased the house). Its multiple trunks look to be around 1.5” (4cm) across and is mostly horizontal due to spending months of the year buried in snow/ice. It is kind of a mess right now so I can’t really get a good look at it until I do some major pruning.

My thoughts were to trim it back to see it is even worth collecting. I suspect pruning would be safest the winter but this plant spends most of its winter buried in a few feet of snow/ice (it is where much of the snow from our driveway and roof ends up, hence its horizontal sprawl), so that may be difficult if not impossible. If I wait until spring, then will I have to wait another year before collecting it?
Also, what preparations should I make for the roots and when? It is bounded on 3 sides by concrete (foundation, driveway, walkway) and the native soil is mostly crap..er..um..oops…I meant to say “clay”.

Thanks in advance for any advice or information!

 

[Vin]

I prune mine in Spring and Summer with no problems at all. However, my zone is much different than yours. As far as collecting goes, I would follow the early Spring collection rule and you'll be just fine.

The multiple trunks could be an issue but until you get it out of the ground and expose some of the area currently covered by soil you just won't know. Could be crap or a real winner; kind of like Cracker Jack.

 

[amatbrewer]

I prune mine in Spring and Summer with no problems at all. However, my zone is much different than yours. As far as collecting goes, I would follow the early Spring collection rule and you'll be just fine.

The multiple trunks could be an issue but until you get it out of the ground and expose some of the area currently covered by soil you just won't know. Could be crap or a real winner; kind of like Cracker Jack.

Thanks!
I figure if it is crap it will at least be a learning opportunity, and I can use it as experimental material (I have a juniper and a cypress that are ugly as sin, but useful for "hmmm, what if I do this....?") or i could gift it to someone who won't know the difference. ;-P
Since I am going to remove it at some point anyway, I figure there is nothing to loose.

 

[Paulpash]

When you see buds swelling then trench & collect. I'm in the UK so this is around early May but this may vary depending on your climate. Try to retain as much foliage as possible, especially if you get a good size rootball. I usually stand the collected stump in semi shade. UK is usually quite cool & moist so if it's really hot they will tolerate shade. Spray foliage daily. Keep substrate moist - they like to drink.

 

[BrianBay9]

Since it's in your yard, why don't you take advantage of that and do some early styling work while it's still in the ground? It will recover faster.

 

[amatbrewer]

Since it's in your yard, why don't you take advantage of that and do some early styling work while it's still in the ground? It will recover faster.

Good point, but I would like to be able to remove it as early as possible so I can move forward with my landscaping. So I am trying to find a good balance in what I can do to help ensure a successful collection, but also move it as early as possible.
Were I smart (I've never been accused of that) I would have started styling it years ago and not have to deal with this dilemma.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Don’t prune off any of the foliage mass before collecting it in the spring. The more foliage the better for helping it regrow roots in the new pot. Even if it looks crazy as hell with all the foliage for a couple years, it’s worth it, you will save yourself years in the long run. Collect in the spring as buds are swelling and just about to open. I collected three massive landscape yews this spring under these guidelines. Two of them I basically didn’t pruneanything off and they are recovering great. The third was so massive there was no way I could transport it home (6 hour drive in the back of my truck) without remove most of its foliage and it is really sulking, but I think it may make it. Will take me years longer to get it healthy enough to the point that I will be able to do work on it.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I would follow Mike Hennigan's advice.

 

[fore]

Plant in pumice ime

 

[Kendo]

Since it's in your yard, why don't you take advantage of that and do some early styling work while it's still in the ground? It will recover faster.

I agree, much can be decided before removing from soil. If no good for bonsai it can be shaped for landscaping.

 

[amatbrewer]

Don’t prune off any of the foliage mass before collecting it in the spring. The more foliage the better for helping it regrow roots in the new pot. Even if it looks crazy as hell with all the foliage for a couple years, it’s worth it, you will save yourself years in the long run. Collect in the spring as buds are swelling and just about to open.

This sounds like it will fit nicely with what I hope to accomplish. Much appreciated!

 

[Mike Hennigan]

I agree, much can be decided before removing from soil. If no good for bonsai it can be shaped for landscaping.

Yes but it needs to be removed soon to make way for better landscaping material to be planted.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

This sounds like it will fit nicely with what I hope to accomplish. Much appreciated!

Yea no problem. Here are a couple pictures of the three I collected this past spring. The first two are more of an upright growing variety, these two I barely pruned anything and they both put out a solid healthy flush of growth post collection. But here you can see how absurdly large they are. Beer bottle sitting on the right box for scale. They will be at least halved in height eventually I think. But keeping that foliage has allowed them to recover quite well. In addition to wiring the rootball into the boxes I used guy wires basically to also help stabilize them since they are so top heavy.


Here is the third, which is the largest but more of a wide spreading variety. If you see these two long branches coming up above the rest of the tree, each with a little Pom Pom of foliage... that’s where the original hedge outline was, so you can imagine I pruned a lot off so that I could transport it. Subsequently, it barely had a flush. The new buds opened but just stayed that way, they didn’t extend into real growth.
Here you can see what the flush of growth on one of the taller ones looked like in the first pics, nice and healthy. And the second pic shows what the “flush” on the heavily pruned yew looks like. Stunted.


Figured some photos could help, good luck with your collecting in the spring.

 

[amatbrewer]

Mike,
As the saying goes "a picture paints a thousand words". Actually seeing the difference between the prune/no prune is very helpful.
Now I kind of wish I had two to remove so I could repeat your experiment. But no such luck. [Its hard to get far from the Engineer in me] ;-P

Thanks again!

 

[BE.REAL]

I have a similar situation with this tree I got from building getting refurbished and there was a few, and the construction guys said takem all! Sadly I only had room for one, as it was they were uprooted roughly and been laying out on pavement for a few days. took it home, put it in a "bath" for the night, next day trimmed thick roots that wouldn't fit in the reddish pot you see now. Some of the roots I had to coil in with it, but its all in pumice and a little 8822. This was this past may, and wondering if I should cut back before winter or wait for spring, and then how much to cut, clearly all the foliage is at end of branches, typical of landscape/hedge Yews, I find.
I do like me some yews!!!