evergreen bushes dying??

We have some very well established evergreen bushes--yews. We had a hard winter--lots of snow and ice that stayed on the bushes for months at a time. We just thawed out a couple weeks ago, and all the bushes look practically dead. They are totally brown on top, although I see a little green here and there deep inside. Will they recover? Was it just the hard winter?

Many plants can get frozen on the top and outer leaves and twigs, yet make a good recovery from inside the plant.
I would not prune, yet. Sometimes it takes a while for the new buds to open, especially when they are from deeper inside the plant.
When you see where the new growth is happening, then you can cut off the dead material, and do a bit of shaping.
Also, wait until after the date of the last expected frost. Pruning can encourage the new growth, and new growth is more sensitive to the frost. Without the protection of the dead leaves and twigs new growth can freeze quite easily.

The Yew's should naturally recover, depending how far within the shrubs the freeze has taken effect, will measure haw long the new growth will be visible, there is every possibility they will take a good couple of years to fully put on their nice green outer coat again but will feed, watering, top dressing the soil and making sure the next time they get that much freeze / frosting, maybe IF possible you can either shake it off with a broom to help OR build a shelter, however I do understand there will be some hedges or very large tree's that type of help could ne near impossible.

Good luck and maybe be patient too.
best regards. WeeNel.

Well established sounds like they have survived many winters. Some may have been just as hard as the one you just went through. Highly likely they will recover.

Weather has warmed up, and about half the yews show some sign of green inside. The other half, however, look brown through and through. These yews are at least 20 years old, maybe more. :-(

Leave them for this season as any plant / tree / shrub that's 20 years old wont become lush / green / or beautiful in a short space of time.

For summer this year I would just give loads of TLC, clear away any dead or unsightly undergrowth, leaves or anything else that aint helping to get moisture air flow and ease of watering to the roots, that area is as important as the top of the plant really because that's where the main energy comes from especially trying to green up the brown areas.

For now, give plenty water, either revamp the by raking / weeding the soil under the hedge,
Add a nice new mulch after absolutely soaking the roots and add a feed, these plants after 20 years will be starved of any nutrient by now so that will also help give them the spurt to get going again.
There has been a lot of gardeners with the same problems this year and to be honest, as I have galeforce winds that burn a lot of my plants, I can tell you with common sense and lots of TLC, they do recover with extra help, you also need to try imagine what the cost would be IF you don't help the hedge, these Yew tree's are expensive to replace especially buying plants the same size as you have right now, so time is free, watering is easy, a bag of the correct feed is cheep (don't over feed, just go by the dosage on packet) OH and don't use a quick fix feed, these are NOT good for your situation, you need a feed for evergreens or slow release like fish . blood . bone mix from garden store, that ready mixture is slow release and will feed for a longer period, people think it attracts animals into the garden, I have never found that at all, remember a feed gets raked or hand forked into the soil so when you water, it don't get washed away.

Hope this assures you things should improve soon, it's just NOT instant.
Good Luck and best Regards.
WeeNel.

Thank you! This gives me some encouragement. I'd hate to lose them!