Yews

I posted yesterday a photo of the poor little Yew in the front yard that had been ravaged by deer.  They love them and strip the needles from them any time there is snow on the ground and they can't graze on grass.  Ones overhanging the ponds (with a bit of fencing) are safe until the surface of ponds freeze and then the deer just walk over the pond to get to them.  It's frustrating.  We are fortunate to have at least one Yew that is large enough to be safe from nibbling.  It was here when Hank bought the land in 1971 and pretty large even at that point.  I love the way the trunks get so interesting with age.  And age they do.  I've heard that 400-600 years old isn't all that unusual in England, where they are called, unsurprisingly, English Yews.

I tried to get a photo of the whole bush, but no luck.  It is tucked in amongst lots of other shrubs, Hamamelis, some Cornus and other things and was just hard to see.  Here's the best I could do.

When I was growing up Taxus baccata was a sort of nondescript green shrub planted by the foundation of the house.  Some of our are so much more than that.

The deer, unfortunately, seem to like the yellow ones even more than the plain green ones.