How High Do Yew Hedges Grow

Last updated on October 23rd, 2023 at 08:26 pm

Yew hedge has become an integral part of our gardens. Especially a yew hedge halfway up the front garden is often part of our garden design. Yew is also particularly suitable for this purpose. Its shape and branching give it a stylish look that suits almost any garden. In addition, the disciplined height of a yew hedge ensures that there is still enough sunlight indoors. Your yew hedge can serve other purposes as well. To consider all the options it is good to determine how tall a yew hedge can get.

The yew as an ideal hedge plant

There are many reasons why the yew is an ideal hedge plant, for example, its slow growth. Yew trees grow between 15 and 20 centimeters per year in our climate, and the cultivated form of the fruiting or non-fruiting cup yew grows more slowly than the native common yew. Therefore, it is easy to monitor yew growth. Up to two prunings per year should be enough to keep the yew a tight, formal hedge with small, green needles. If you want to give your yew hedge a rejuvenation pruning, that’s also possible, but only for yew, because you can’t do that with cypress.

However, due to the slow growth, it takes a while for a yew hedge to reach the desired height. Especially if it is to grow taller than the popular half-height yew hedge in the front yard. Nevertheless, a taller yew hedge is quite possible. If you are not in a hurry, then you can wait for the yew hedge to reach the desired height. Should this happen more quickly? Then you can always plant a prefabricated hedge in the garden. Then the hedge will get the right height already in the nursery. In the meantime, the yew plants are then well cared for, so that you immediately have a tall, healthy yew hedge in the garden.

The height of a yew hedge

In nature, the common yew, or Taxus baccata, can grow into a tall tree. In Great Britain and Europe, for example, there are yews that are almost 25 meters high. The tallest yew in the Netherlands is in Wassenaar and is 19 meters high. Of course, it takes years for a yew to grow that tall. Another advantage of the yew is therefore that it can grow old. In the whole world there are different specimens that can even live up to 1000 years. If you take care of the yew tree, then you will enjoy it for a lifetime.

However, if you prefer yew hedges, they will not become huge trees. For this, the roots need a lot of space and close together in a hedge they do not get this space. Nevertheless, a yew hedge can grow almost 2 meters high. This is perfectly sufficient if you want to use a hedge later as a privacy hedge. Yew is compact and branched enough to form dense hedges. However, make sure that the Taxus media should not be higher than 1.80 meters. Of course, this variety of yew can grow higher, but then the branches can fan out on the sides during rain or snow.

How to use a yew hedge?

It is precisely because of the various possibilities that yew is a particularly versatile hedge plant. Because of its slow growth, yew is not quickly used as a privacy hedge, which is still quite possible. A prefabricated hedge or a lot of patience will eventually ensure that your garden gets a privacy screen. Of course, it is quite understandable that people then still usually choose a low yew hedge in the front garden. Anyway, a hedge in the front garden should not be higher than 1 meter. And then there are not many, evergreen hedge plants that look wonderful at this height, but the yew can.

It is at least as beautiful to use the yew as a topiary plant, although this is less common. The growth of a yew is a bit faster than the growth of a boxwood, which is of course an ideal topiary plant, but this growth is still slow enough for you to give the yew wonderful topiary. If you have given your yew hedge the proper shape, then it will hold that shape for a long time. To bring out finer details, the tops of a yew hedge should be trimmed up to four times a year, but pretty it will remain no matter what.

The popularity of yew

As you learned in this blog article, so the wonderful yew can be used for quite different purposes. However, this versatility is only one of the many advantages of this sturdy yew tree. In fact, these particular conifers have been popular for centuries. At the beginning of our era, for example, the yew was one of the few plants that were evergreen throughout the year. Now, of course, in Europe there are many, evergreen hedge plants, but still the yew is one of our favorite plants that are popular in the garden, and not without reason.

Are you looking for a conifer hedge that can quickly reach eye level? Then you can think about the tree of life (Thuja), Leyland cypress or mock cypress. For a more informal option, you can use the cherry laurel or holly. These hedge plants are also evergreen throughout the year.