Taunton Spreading Yew

No time? Exacting tastes? No problem!

For a lovely, low-maintenance evergreen hedge or foundation planting, use the classic Taunton Spreading Yew shrub (Taxus x media 'Tauntonii')! With its low graceful and lovely form, this shrub makes the perfect accent to any landscape.

A type of Japanese Yew, the Taunton Spreading Yew grows with a sophisticated, spreading form. Landscapers love to use these plants because of their rich evergreen foliage, ease of care, and versatility.

This plant has fluffy, soft evergreen foliage of short dark green needles all year long - even in the winter months! What makes dwarf Taunton's Yew so valuable is that it is an evergreen that can grow in full sun, part shade, or total shade. They are one of the few evergreens that will tolerate full shade.

This really opens the door to using them everywhere throughout your landscape. This shrub is well-known for being both tolerant of summer heat and resistant to winter burn. They'll work in the cold winters of Zone 4 and tolerate the sticky humid heat of Zone 7 summers without blinking an eye. They truly are incredibly easy to care for!

As the rest of your garden rests during the winter, this shrub will continue to be eye-catching as its beautiful dark green color never fades! With an easy-care, excellent compact and dense growth habit, landscape architects have been seeing them with fresh eyes for use in today's landscapes.

Planting and Application:

Try Taunton in your border or as an accent specimen, or put it to work on hard-to-mow hillsides and as erosion control. A wonderful wide-spreading evergreen for low-maintenance landscapes. Use Taunton to add structure to your garden design.

Create a special focal point using them as an evergreen surround for a gorgeous Japanese Maple tree, or exquisite garden sculpture, or create an allée behind a garden bench. Be sure to add landscape lights to spotlight those moments at night. They'll act as a perfect foil for brighter annuals and other flowering shrubs!

They work beautifully in a mixed shrub border or as a backdrop to a perennial garden. These shrubs really shine in winter. Be sure to include evergreens throughout your landscape for a balanced look year-round.

You can shear them formally without a problem or leave them to grow into their neat, fluffy, natural form! Use these to establish boundaries as a fine-textured, low-evergreen hedge. Run them along the length of a driveway or allow them to polish the setting by using several planted a hedge along a patio.

Japanese Yews have been used as traditional foundation plants to dress up the front of houses. This works well to create a feeling of privacy, without feeling like you live in a fortress. And because Taunton Yews work in both sun and shade, it's possible to achieve a consistent look for longer hedges that may run through both sun and shaded exposures!

For modern design purists, try your hand at using them as special evergreen accents. Plant them 8 feet apart in a straight line and shear them into square boxes or round balls. Or put a topiary-trimmed Yew on either side of a doorway or entrance to a garden path.

Shear them or leave them natural and untrimmed. Without pruning, the shrub develops feathery new growth. It will grow into a pretty open shape. Left growing naturally allows the flowers to form for pollinators and the red, plump bird-friendly berries to form! Birds also adore the fluffy shrub for shelter and nesting!

• Fluffy Green Soft Needled Evergreen
• Versatile, Sophisticated Four-Season Interest
• Can Be Sheared Formally or Grown Naturally
• Insignificant Little Pollinator-Friendly Flowers
• Bird-Friendly Shelter & Berries
• Easy Care Evergreen Hedge, Property Definition, Foundations & Backdrops

#ProPlantTips for Care:

Taunton Spreading Japanese Yews work in almost any light level, and any soil, as long as it's well-drained. Plant only where the soil is well-drained. If you see puddles in the planting site after a rain, you'll want to "mound up" before planting. Simply build a mound of dirt 18 - 24 inches higher than your native soil line. You'll plant directly into the mound.

Provide regular waterings during the first several seasons. Once their roots are established in your soil, it's very adaptable to lower moisture. All evergreens appreciate mulched beds 3-4 inches deep and a good drink before the winter months.

Shear to keep the tops narrower than the base, so the foliage will grow densely all the way to the ground. It's best not to prune heavily in the fall. To keep the shrub in check for size, prune in later spring after the new growth feathers out. Reduce the length of the new growth to keep it smaller. Sometimes a secondary flush of growth may develop. In that case, just snip any stragglers off.

Honestly, Taunton Spreading Yews never needs pruning. The natural look is very attractive, as well. It's no problem if you want to just tidy up its edges from time to time. Older plants can be rejuvenated by trimming out longer portions of the plant back to a part of the stem that still has needles on it. It can then produce new buds and generate new growth from that point.

For a continuous hedge, plant them 2 ½' or 3' on center. Measure from the center of one to the center of the next.

• Extremely Versatile Sun & Shade!
• Any Well-Drained Soil & Moderate Moisture
• Tolerant to Both Heat & Cold
• Prune Once a Year After The First Flush of Growth
• Resistant to Winter Burn

With its tolerance for so many different climates and a wide array of sun exposure, it's no wonder the reliable Taunton Spreading Yew is loved by many! You'll love this adaptable, hard-working, and lovely Yew variety. Order enough to complete your entire project from Nature Hills. We recommend sizing up to the largest container size we have in stock. You'll get faster results and love the look.