Taxus Media Hicksii Yew

Taxus Media Hicksii is an evergreen upright yew tree that’s shorter and bushier than common yew and grows at a faster rate. It’s perfect for hedging or topiary and an excellent alternative to box in blight prone areas.

Taxus is commonly known as Yew. It’s native to northern Europe, Northwest Africa, Northern Iran, and Asia. It’s an ancient plant that’s been found in the early cretaceous fossil record and its extremely hardy as a result.

Taxus Media Hicksii is a hybrid between Taxus Baccata and Taxus Cuspidata. It’s a female conifer shrub with long-limbed ascending branches and dark green glossy needles measuring up to 3 centres each. It’s a female tree that often bears shiny red fruit from inconspicuous flowers in spring. It was bred in 1900 by Hicks Nurseries in New York and it’s been popular here since for its hardiness and long-lived nature.

Height And Spread of Taxus Media Hicksii
Yew Hicksii is shorter in stature than common yews. It takes 10 years to reach 1.5 metres in height and 1 metre in spread.

How Hardy Is Taxus Media Hicksii
Its origins make this a very hardy shrub in below zero winters if its roots are well-drained. It tolerates drought, pollution and coastal sprays too.

How To Use Taxus Media Hicksii
Yew Hicksii is a great choice for short hedges. It’s fairly slow-growing at 15 – 30 cms a year, but faster than traditional yew. Use it to create topiary, wind shelters, to section off garden rooms, and create shade for cool loving plants like ferns.

Wildlife-friendly gardens benefit from Taxus Hicksii’s thick, dense branches that provide shelter for birds and insects as well as small mammals.

How To Care For Taxus Media Hicksii
Yew Hicksii is very undemanding, growing without fuss in shade to full sun so long as its soil is well-drained.

It copes with exposed sites and pruning isn’t necessary unless you want a trim and tidy hedge or a statement topiary plant. Left untrimmed it produces glossy red berries in autumn and winter.

Water Yew Hicksii well until it’s established and apply a thick layer of mulch to its roots in spring to trap moisture and promote new healthy growth.