![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Cephalotaxus-harrin-DukeGardens-1.jpg\" "\\"Cephalotaxus")
<\/a>Cephalotaxus harringtonia 'Duke Gardens'<\/p><\/div> Plum yews are native to China, Korea and Japan. Many people confuse them with Japanese yews (Taxus spp.<\/em>) which grow poorly in southern clay soils and are highly susceptible to deer feeding. Plum yews are highly deer resistant*.<\/p>\n Plum yews start out growing slowly, but catch up once established in 2 years or less. Lustrous dark green evergreen needles vary in length from \u00be to almost 2 inches. Foliage retains its lush green color through the winter months.<\/p>\n Plum yews substitute for Japanese yews (Taxus spp.<\/em>)in the south. Available cultivars vary in plant height and growth form. Plum yews cope with either light shade or full sun. They prefer a moist well drained soil, but established plants exhibit good drought tolerance.<\/p>\n There are 3 distinct growth forms of plum yew: * Deer resistance is based on \u201cnormal\u201d population numbers. Deer will feed on most plants if their populations are exceptional high or when natural food resources become depleted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Plum yews (Cephalotaxus harringtonia) are evergreen needle conifers which flourish in the heat and humidity of the Southeastern U.S. (USDA hardiness zones 6-9). Likely, the groundcover forms are hardier to zone 5-b if protected by snow cover or surrounding vegetation from dry winter winds. Plum yews are native to China, Korea and Japan. Many people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,144,778,645,674,617,800,604,628,601,630,7,113,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4196"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4207,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4196\/revisions\/4207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPlum yews (Cephalotaxus harringtonia<\/em>) are evergreen needle conifers which flourish in the heat and humidity of the Southeastern U.S. (USDA hardiness zones 6-9). Likely, the groundcover forms are hardier to zone 5-b if protected by snow cover or surrounding vegetation from dry winter winds.<\/p>\n
\n\u2018Fastigiata\u2019 is a columnar form that grows 10 feet tall and 6-8 feet wide in 15-20 years.
\n\u2018Prostrata\u2019 and \u2018Drupacea\u2019 grow 2 ft tall and 20 plus feet wide. Clip off aberrant shoots that spring up to maintain a uniform groundcover appearance.
\n\u2018Duke Gardens\u2018) has a semi-upright, spreading shrub appearance similar to spreading forms of Japanese yews (Taxus x media<\/em>) or (T. cuspidata<\/em>). It was found at Sarah P. Duke Gardens in Durham, N.C. as a chimera (mutation) on \u2019Fastigiata\u2018. <\/p>\n