I have a bunch of 'HIcks' and have never seen 'berries'. Anecdotal only, but fwiw.

Me too. So I assume we too need some males to pollinate them.

So maybe there are males and females. At the nursery the other day I saw some Hicks with a few berries, and some with no berries, but might be too early in the season to really tell.

Taxus x media 'Hicksii' is supposed to be a female clone. But there are apparently various similar xmedia hybrids being sold under that cultivar name that include both male and female specimens, so the water tends to be muddy :-) But if you only purchase female plants, unless a male present, they will not develop any 'berries'.

Thank you for your replies. The place where we were thinking to buy from has many yews, all lined up, b&b'ed, in the ground. They came from fields nearby. So does that mean they all will most likely produce berries?

And a side question. We actually just went to this nursery and I was reminded of the swarm of gnats around these yews. They had different types of yews in the same area, but the gnats seem to be clustered around the Hicksii. It freaked out my husband and now he says no way to these yews, unless there is some explanation for the gnats and we can get rid of them. Does gnats love the Hicksii?

" So does that mean they all will most likely produce berries? "

Not necessarily. While 'Hicksii' is supposed to be a female clone, as noted above there are male plants sold with that designation. So you are probably just as likely to receive a male as you are a female. And unfertilized female plants will not produce berries either, although if field grown, that seems less likely.

Gnats are not attracted to any particular plants but they do often gather and hover around a plant or grouping of plants when the mood strikes :-) Not anything I would be overly concerned about. You might never see them again.

GTK about the gnats! So the berries...if I wanted to try to avoid them, would you recommend I go back in a few weeks and pick berryless plants? Or is there a better strategy?

If you don't see any now you won't see any in a a few more weeks. If female plants and they were going to produce berries, they would have done so by now.

Ok. The weird thing is today I could barely see any berries on any of the plants. Just a few days ago they were hanging off the front of one or two plants (the plants in front, perhaps the only ones I was noticing). Today I had to push some branches aside to find any berries. But it's not like any of the plants were covered in berries last week. Is this the end of berry season? I'm pretty clueless.

As the berries ripen, then can shrivel up and fall off. The birds can get them also if that's possible.

I'm curious as to why it is important to you not to have berries. I find yew berries very attractive and to me they would be a bonus. Do you have small children or something?

Good question. Something from my childhood I think, can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it reminds me of the generic landscaping I grew up with and never liked. I do like black/blue berries, oddly enough.

Wild creatures often seem to eat the "berries". The gnats at the nursery were probably associated with the soil or mulch around the plants. Conifers do attract the dreaded spider mites, in case you have some obsessed spider phobia!

Hicksii does seem to be a bastardized name in the trade, as multiple plants seem to be sold under that name. If you are going to pay to get male plants, I would look for a less common variety.

This year I bought a 'Beanpole' that was covered with fleshy red "berries", and the berries were mostly gone in two days after planting. I liked the red fleshy berries, hope I get a crop next year. What is funny is that I bought a 'Beanpole' from a indie nursery two springs before that had no berries at all and is clearly not the same clone at all as the new one, quite different needles. I think the new 'Beanpole' is the real one.