An age old story
Powis’ famous yew tumps and hedges are almost 300 years old and their unusual shape tells the story of changing fashions in the horticultural world.
When they were originally planted in the 18th century, the yews were clipped into small, formal cones or pyramids. However by the end of the century English landscape gardening, made popular by figures such as 'Capability' Brown, had become popular and our yew hedges were allowed to grow naturally and become more ‘tree-like’.
This lasted until formal gardening made resurgence in the Victorian era and the yews were once more clipped back into shape giving them the unusual structure that is still so striking to visitors today.
How to trim to perfection
We were so impressed with our gardeners’ handiwork, we asked them for their top five tips for trimming your own hedges at home:
1. To get perfect shaping, choose your hedging plant carefully: a slower growing plant, such as yew, is perfect as they don’t take so much clipping when they're fully grown.
2. Clip yew and evergreen hedges in August and September to ensure that they stay neat and crisp until the following spring.
3. To cut a perfectly straight top, stretch a taut string line along the top edge and follow this closely with your trimmer.
4. It’s tempting to cutback an overgrown hedge hard, but beware, not all of it will regrow. You can prune yew, beech and hornbeam, but most conifer hedges will not sprout new growth from old, brown wood.
5. Be very careful if you decide to use ladders at home; it may be safer to call in the professionals. If you do give it a go though, goggles, gloves and ear defenders are all sensible precautions when working with electric or petrol hedger cutters.