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welcome to the forums ...

ken

Looks like a yew hedge (closer, more detailed photos would confirm). And yes, it can be hard pruned but will take some time before it regains a decent appearance. But this is not a great time to do so.....late winter/early spring would be better.

Thank you so much. I've always been afraid to cut it.

Late winter/early spring is best, its a yew hedge and they can tolerate some pretty hard pruning since unlike some other evergreen shrubs it can resprout from old wood after a hard prune.

Just be aware the part that you prune to hard past the green, it's gonna take a while until it looks good again. Maybe you should do something mid-range not to hard/not to light the sweet spot so it looks presentable still but not too bare

I am curious how you would define "presentable but not too bare" in this situation. As dense as that hedge appears, you are not likely to find much green remaining even a short distance towards its center. And cutting it back only a little bit (such that the front remains even partly green, or "presentable") will not create much more space for those hostas.

I'm not sure you can have your cake and eat it too in this situation. If you want plenty of space for the hostas, you will probably have to cut that hedge back far enough that it doesn't look presentable, and then begin the slow wait for it to green back up and fill back in.

in spring you can have the hedge and hostas do 'rock paper scissors' with each other and see who wins. co existence is going to be hard.

@illsstep I know its pretty hard to get something ideally. I'm just thinking that cutting it back a little so at least the front is partly green. Not a lot of space but might be better than nothing.

Another thought:

Do you have any grass/land/space in front of the Hostas? If you did maybe you could move the hostas 1 or 2 feet forward? That way they would have more space and the yew would get no or maybe a light pruning.

While the yew would eventually green and fill up again after a hard prune it would look sad, bare, and not aesthetically pleasing for a while. During fall and winter, when the hostas are worn, starting to finish up for the season and will die back, in my opinion, the front of the yew is the one that should be presentable and still look good when everything becomes dull outside.

Quite a dilemma, let us know what you decide to do and maybe even share a pic once everything is done!

I'm planning on cutting it way back. It won't look the greatest but I'm ok with that. Pictures to come in late winter/spring.

Try roping back a single branch or a few cubic feet with some twine to see how far back it needs to go to clear the hostas. When you do trim it back, trim it a foot away from the house walls, too, to improve air circulation.

I subjected an overgrown Eugenia hedge to a hard prune last year. Though it's a different plant, you may find my experience informative.

- I found this video really helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eW78-k6wDE.  For my smaller hedge, instead of tree ties, I used the same plant ties I use in my vegetable garden. Now that I've brought my hedge under control, I'll use this trimming technique in future.

- I needed to bring my hedge back by 3' to keep the public pavement clear, and I wanted to do that ASAP, so I didn't use Roger Cook's hand-trimmer technique for the first prune. I decided to hard prune the south side of the hedge first, then trim the north side when the south had grown in.

- The pro I hired gave me the advice I found most useful: the hedge will grow out to the limits I want, so it needs to be cut back further than that. For example, if I want a hedge 8' tall, I should cut it back to 7', then let it grow in 1'.

Here is how it looked as it was being cut back, late November 2016:

Here is how it filled in by late March 2017:

And less than 11 months after the initial trim, early October 2017, it is a proper hedge:

I'm happy with how it turned out. It looked like rubbish for 3 months, but in my case the neighborhood was so happy to have their 3' of pavement back that they didn't mind the look.

Good luck with your yew!