Taxus baccata 'Repandens'

Spreading English Yew

Low-growing evergreen shrub with dark green needles and long, spreading branches that droop at the tips. Unlike the English yew (which eventually becomes treelike), this variety stays low to the ground, growing only 2 to 3 feet high but extending to several feet wide.

Like all yews, these plants need alkaline soil. They are female plants, meaning that they bear red, fleshy seed cups in the fall (oddly enough, the red cup is the only part of the plant that is not poisonous).  

Several of these plants failed to thrive and I replaced them with blue star junipers. This specimen finally greened up and bore fruit. It seems likely that the soil was too acid for them.  


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