The evergreen yew is an amazingly beautiful coniferous plant that is rapidly gaining the love of landscape designers. It is frost-resistant, unpretentious, loves shaded areas. In nature, conifers are able to take root even in dark gorges. It is these qualities that the plant attracts modern gardeners.
Yew trees are long-livers, living for more than one thousand years.
Old yew alleys, groves and tunnels are of historical value and are invariably popular with tourists.
In landscape gardening, Canadian, pointed, medium and berry yews are used. The latter has the most decorative appearance due to its long needles and goblet red aryllus berries.
Yew shoots in the early stages of development have a bush structure, which is what landscape designers use.
Elastic fluffy branches of yews keep their shape well due to their peculiar structure. The branches first diverge from the trunk and grow upward, and then slightly incline towards the ground. So that new yew shoots do not grow much, you can tie them or give them some geometric shape in the form of a ball, pyramid or cube using a metal frame. Yew trees grow very slowly, so their crown does not need to be pruned frequently.
When decorating a garden in the style of a Russian estate, chalet or naturgarden, it is better not to expose the crowns of yew plants to pronounced pruning, thereby creating the appearance of natural plantings.
Tall varieties of yew are often used as accent tape, and a variety of complex shapes look especially impressive in topiary compositions.
Thorny yews do a good job of being an impenetrable hedge, which can effectively protect the site from uninvited guests. Neatly trimmed evergreen shrubs beautifully frame garden paths and narrow alleys.
Low-growing yew varieties are harmoniously combined with stones on alpine slides and rockeries.
When decorating mixborders in park areas, landscape stylists plant conifers in the background as a backdrop for flowering plants. Yew also goes well with ornamental trees and shrubs that have vibrant and unusual foliage.
Yew loves moist soil, so he will be very happy if he is allowed to live next to a waterfall or some kind of body of water.
Of course, yew will decorate any flower bed or lawn in a large park or in a summer cottage, but remember that this evergreen is poisonous.