Urban yamadori question regarding yews.

I live in New England (CT) and know that collecting in the spring is ideal, but when is it too late? I found someone who has two nice front yard yews that he wants removed and wonder if removing them now will kill them. I've heard some success stories of yews collected at all times of the year, but don't want to risk killing them. It hasn't got into the 70's yet during the day and remains in the upper 30's to mid 40's at night. The yews I own are just starting to bud out, so am I still ok to collect?

You want to do that initially when the buds are swelling...usually after frost is done. If the shoots are throwing out, then you have to wait until mid summer after the new growth hardens off. Make sure you get a good rootball about 8-10x the trunk diameter...but remember, a bigger portion of the trunk is going to be below ground.

If it's now or never i'd do it now, it's maybe a week or two at most later than the ideal time, i'm in west mass., but hey free trees, go get um Yews are tough.

Many different time zones and weather patterns in the US. If the buds have opened and are extending, I would persuade the landowner to leave collecting until next Spring.

I agree if its now or never do it, I've lifted Beeches in June and had them live the trick was to grab all the root and soil I could and basically slip pot it into something large enough to hold it all, I used a 50 gallon drum cut down to a height of about 18 inches. The idea conceivably is to fool the tree into thinking everything is ok, only the location changed. Don't fool with the roots, keep it in shade, keep it evenly moist..pray to the god of Taxus for strength.

I can't believe people are advocating digging them up when there is no mention of a timescale. Really bad advice to collect them now in my opinion.

Will is right of course, I just thought if this is your only chance than might as well try at least.

Is there a way to arrange to get them at a later date?

See Yew Buds transplanting time our yews are at this stage of bud elongation, I asked Ryan Neil about this very subject and he said he recommends doing root work on yews when the shoots are stretching not at bud swell or at pollen candle time, just after that. That's what i've been doing, transplanting at this time of year, see My Yews with no problems.

Transplanting established and healthy rootballs with loads of fleshy feeder roots is completely different to collecting where you remove most of the feeder roots.

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to wait until the fall. It is the last of about twenty bushes that were stumped because the church was fixing the bell tower and needed to erect the scaffolding. All were at least 80 years old and had 8-15 inch trunks.

there was a church that was removing all the trees in from mostly yew that have been there ever since the early 60's and i went over and asked if i could collect one and they had no problem with it and mind you it was mid aug and the tree is thriving and almost two years now i plan on repotting it in the spring.