This Creeping English Yew is the cold hardiest cultivar of the English Yew, that is native to Europe and far North Africa. Creeping English Yew is a low shrub that spreads at least twice as wide as high. It grows slowly about 6 to 8 inches/year. The tips of the branches are sort of pendulous. It is a female clone, but it usually does not bear much of the seeds covered with red flesh (arils), if any; the chances of any bearing of seed might happen when plants are much older. Some were sold each year for a number of years at a garden center that I worked at in southeast Pennsylvania from about 2002 to 2014. However, it is not well-known but is only infrequently found in Mid-Atlantic landscapes. It seems it was introduced to the nursery trade in the 1880's by Samuel B. Parsons & Sons Nursery in New York, New York. What is very nice about this informal-growing yew cultivar is that it really does not need any pruning, and it should never be sheared. It is similar to the much more cold hardy 'Taunton' Anglo-Japanese Yew.

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