I believe the Bristlecone pine in California in the same age range. However they are not nearly as impressive.

So, there are trolls living in trees after all!

;-)

The history of these trees is amazing.

Thanks Dave.

I really enjoy these ongoing big tree posts, beng.

I feel like rambling about yews...mind if I drop this here? (Grab a cup of coffee)

My "relationship" with Taxus started in rural z3-4 Minnesota, where, due to lack of hardiness and some clay soil difficulties, they were considered exotic, and anyone successfully growing them was special indeed. Of course, nobody knew they could become huge old trees, and T. baccata -the most well-known species that gets tree-like- was not hardy at all in Minnesota. Yews were considered foundation shrubs for the east side of a building, out of the hot sun and protected from the winter gales blasting out of the NW.

I was introduced very early on to the Minnesota native Taxus canadensis by an amazing local plantsman named Ron Wienhold. He gave me two plants which I planted in my parents garden. That was probably around 1983, and they're still thriving today despite serious deer browsing most winters.

In 1988 after getting my hort degree I moved to Boston to work as a landscape designer. Yews were "over-yewsed" to a ridiculous degree there, and I had no interest in including them in my designs, especially since there were so many other great alternatives in that z6 climate. Yews were dead to me during the Boston years, with one exception: Taxus baccata 'Repandens'. I adored its nearly black foliage in shade, its very horizontal, feather-like leaf arrangement, and its graceful spreading form. It would be ruined by pruning. It was a wonderful foil for brighter or variegated shade plants, and I used it in many designs.

In 1992 I returned to MN, and continued my career in Rochester Minnesota. Yews were much more popular and somewhat successful in that much milder City in far SE MN. But being back in z4, my evergreen options were once again very limited, and I found myself embracing yews in every shape and form, as alternatives to the oh so common junipers and arborvitaes, and I used a lot of them in designs.

The company I worked for guaranteed their plants, and it was my job to make sure dead plants were replaced for all of my design clients. Taxus was the number one genus that needed replacing. The clay was pretty dreadful in many parts of Rochester, and limestone was also abundant, making for high pH soil, which probably didn't help the situation. Half the time they would die completely, they other half they would look so dreadful and mostly brown (but not dead) that people wanted them replaced. Of course these were the hardiest of yew cultivars: T. x media 'Tauntonii', T. media 'Dark Green Spreader', and T cuspidata 'Capitata', the latter being the most frequently replaced plant of all. Sadly, I could not use T baccata 'Repandens' in MN! I did urge our buyer to get some T 'Emerald Spreader' for something different, and they did very well. They were very low growing and were often protected by snow cover. So, even though I had made amends with the genus Taxus, it was a love-hate relationship in z4.

In 2006 I move to the PNW - Seattle.....z8b. The horticultural flood gates were opened. Yews are stalwarts here in Cascadia, and plenty of them are planted, but there are so many other more interesting and much less hardy (but plenty hardy for z8b) and less common conifers available, I once again let Taxus drop out of my designs.

Except Taxus baccata 'Repandens' (which I could use again!)

As the years went by I began to gradually understand the sheer utility of the genus in a zone 8, super-dry summer, climate. These things never die here, despite the rain-less summers. They grow in the deepest, driest shade, a common challenge here with all of the massive conifers, and very dark winters (not lately though here in Portland, as I look out the window upon brilliant, January 9 sunshine). They take any type of pruning imaginable, including renewal right down to the base, and grow right back. Not many conifers do that. And, since this is T. baccata country -the most lovely and refined species of them all - I began to use them in designs again, mostly for problem areas, where durable, low-maintenance privacy plants were needed, but horizontal space was at a premium.

In my Dallas OR garden, and here in my latest garden in Cedar Hills, I've planted a lot of them, and will be adding more. To establish privacy on all sides of my garden I mostly use BLEs where there is sufficient space: Magnolia (Michelia), Laurus, Viburnum, Ilex, Camellia, Elaeagnus, Aucuba, Fatsia, Rhododendron, Azara, Quercus, Pittosporum, Arctostaphylos . But then where horizontal space is limited, and to contrast with all of those bold BLEs, yews really pull the composition together. I've planted 3 T. baccata 'David', 3 T. baccata Fastigiata Aurea', T. baccata 'Standishii', T. x media 'Hillii' & T. baccata 'Fastigiata'. In the Dallas garden I also grew T. x media 'Hicksii', T. baccata 'Goldener Zwerg' & Taxus x media 'Beanpole', and would like to add those here too.

I've been looking for an affordable (looking at you Conifer Kingdom) Taxus baccata 'Silver Spire' but no luck so far.

If I ever run across the straight species Taxus baccata for sale, something that would resemble your photo above beng, in, say, 3000 years or so, I would buy one for my garden!

One last species to discuss: Taxus brevifolia, our native PNW yew, is really only seen in the wild and sometimes in botanical gardens. Even where native they are extremely uncommon and usually as solitary specimens. It was briefly famous in the 80s as a cancer treatment (taxol), but when I moved here I was thrilled to occasionally see them in person on hikes in the Coast Range. Every one I've seen has been immense, 20' x 20', but not particularly attractive, quite open and airy, partly due to the very short needles.

As great and utilitarian as yews are, I don't forsake any of the other conifers, and am trying to add them all to my garden, albeit in their more garden friendly, compact cultivars....no more garden space remaining for giants, there were five already here when we arrived!

Although....Pinus lambertiana, wow, hmmm, where might I.....

Interesting find while searching for largest Taxus baccata in the US.

Don't know if these are the largest but there was a couple in NJ, that I was able to find this information.

Elizabeth Haddon Estaugh brought cuttings from her family's English yew trees to her New Jersey estate in the early 1700s (around 1713 when she built her home), planting them at her "New Haddonfield Plantation," with some of those original trees surviving until a severe winter in 1926, though a cutting from them was planted later in the 1920s at Boxwood Hall (that one still exists today).

Google search on Haddon Ave & Lake St. NJ (boxwood hall).

The 'One the corner' is said to be the one from cutting off the trees above. Over 100 years old and one source said 36" dbh and 30 ft. tall. Not sure what the tree on the right is....

@artinnature, if you're looking for an interesting small "yew", try a plum yew, as their needles are arranged symmetrically that gives an attractive appearance. I've just recently bought several for that reason. Here's a link on the types.

https://arboretum.harvard.edu/stories/cephalotaxus-the-plum-yews/

beng - I grew the fastigiate forms of Cephalotaxus in my last three gardens, both green and gold variegated. I'll probably add some here at some point, and I want to try one of the spreading forms as well, as I've never grown those.

In my experience in both Seattle and Oregon, Cephalotaxus would scorch in hot afternoon sun while Taxus had no issues. And, while Taxus are pretty darn slow, Cephalotaxus are even slower, at least for me. My fastest Growers have been T. 'David' and 'Hicksii'.

I also would love to try Torreya. I think there are species from both east and west coasts if i recall correctly?

Hmm, my Cephalotaxus harringtonia ’Duke Gardens’ looked fine during a very hot & dry Aug onward, tho it does get alot of shade in the summer. Last winter it did get alittle burning at the tips from the -10F, but nothing serious.

At one time I was looking to get seeds for the endangered Florida yew, as it apparently is cold-tolerant enough for z6, but I never got any response from my emailing them. It has a serious fungal issue where it grows in FL.

https://www.torreyaguardians.org/save.html

beng - I suspect that the very low humidity in the west + unabated afternoon sun + high temperatures (>95F) results in scorching on many plants that don't have this problem when grown in humid eastern North America.