Kentrees, what a great thing to do. Do you yet know how this will work? It would be great if you could plant a tree for each class, with all the kids participating in the planting. I'd be interested to know how this turns out -- hopefully you'll keep us posted.

I have a plan in mind, but there may be constraints. I do know a large area has to be kept open for Lifeflight. I hadn't thought about getting the kids involved. I'd actually like to do this with as little fanfare as possible, I'm not the kind of person who likes the limelight. School starts on Aug. 5th, I'll let things settle then start planning. I'll report my progress.

Kentrees, Let me make a case for a little more legwork and a whole lot of learning: you have the chance to create a generation of tree-planters and tree lovers. Fall is the time to plant. Although teachers are very busy in September you could approach the district's science dept and see if they'd help you pull together a very modest program for planting in October. Even if the kids just planted a few, they could learn about the ecology of planting trees: why fall, function of root, leaves, etc. why you don't make mulch mountains, how to create a bowl. I bet there'd be at least 3 kids out of a 100 on whom you'd make a lifetime impression. And one of the 10 year olds will be writing to the town's public works dept complaining about the mulch mountains around town trees at the library! Ther first graders will watch those trees grow for 6 years; when the junior high and high schoolers come back to visit a teacher or pick up a younger sibling, they'll see how much "their" tree grew over the last 10 years.

Or if you aren't up for that, invite5 kids first signed up, first served, for a Sat or Sun or after school tree planting. Do it via the school newsletter or email....

Oh, please, don't keep this opportunity to yourself. Put the kids and trees in the limelight. I think you will enjoy the experience of working with the children on something much more meaningful than a computer game they' might be otherwise playing.

Thanks Floral, that was back in 2014, I had gotten one, but it died, so there isn't one growing where I wanted one. I tried the place where I got the first one ( Oikos tree crops, in Michigan USA) but, they no longer carry them and Forest farm in Oregon, USA only has the shrub form. We have Yew shrubs galore here, but no Baccada. They are on many UK sites, but, I see many UK sites don't want to send here, it will say shipping prices for the UK, and nothing about the US, and I am not rich enough to have a large specimen shipped here, so I'll just leave the area bare, and if I see them again at a affordable price, I'll try again. I don't understand why I lost the first one, I watered every couple days, mulched. I probably should've shaded it with something for a while. Well, maybe I'll find one inline at some point, I haven't looked lately, but, sometimes EBAY offers things cheaply, I am sure it will come from the UK, but, maybe I'll get a whip for a decent price, and I'll have to make the tree as happy as possible, provide some shade, maybe keep it sheltered until fall, then plant it etc. Okay Thanks again Floral

Sam Md, I am not likely to find a English Yew baby to dig up. I don't know how to time things right to dig up a Taxus Baccatta, (tree yew) and grow one.

poaky1 - you could dig it up any time as along as you watered it appropriately. You can also grow Yew from cuttings. Yew cuttings I am very surprised you are having such trouble finding T baccata. Over here it is sold in bulk bundles for hedging.

The yew of choice here is pretty much x intermedia, mostly used for foundation plantings. Forty years ago when I was doing a little collecting baccata was very hard to find. I had one selection of baccata if memory serves, brevifolia I think.

I've seen the bare root bundles you mention on 'Beechgrove Garden' and 'Gardener's World'.

That's interesting. I wonder why it is so unusual in the states. Doesn't it thrive?

I've done a real quick Google search of Taxus baccata, and found this info from Missouri Botanical Garden: T.b. does not like extremes nor rapid fluctuations in temperature. It is not particularly hardy, to -10F (USDA zone 6). It doesn't do well in St. Louis MO. which is generally zone 6 and has a continental climate, hot summers, cold winters, wild temperature and rainfall fluctuations at times. It is also subject to Phythoptera when stressed (as is Taxus in general, at least here). A big chunk of the central US "enjoys" those conditions, as do some of the highly populated parts of the NE US. South of zone 6 it's probably too hot and wet, and SW US probably too hot and dry. The Japanese species, hybrids, and selections of Taxus are much more hardy, tolerant, and amenable to cultivation over large areas of the US, and so that is what is commonly found in the general nursery industry.

"'Taxus baccata' does not like extremes" - well there's my answer right there. It clearly likes the temperate maritime climate over here. It's curious to think of a tough, common, native species being 'foofoo' elsewhere in the world.

It can produce a pretty serious hedge;-)

The low growing greenery in this picture is all one giant Yew tree. It is recorded as the widest Yew in the UK and is possibly the widest in Europe. It has engulfed nearby trees which poke up out through it. It is quite fun climbing through it.

i am also surprised you cant find them in the US ... i killed at least 4 of them in my conifer collection .. in z5 MI ... named varieties mind you ...

perhaps you need to be looking at conifer suppliers ... rather than tree sellers????

ken

floral

It just goes to show the big difference a more stable climate makes. In my brief search I also learned that T.b. grows in Norway, certainly much colder than all but the coldest places in the US, but, I assume, more stable climatically. When it's cold, it stays cold until it gets warm, and stays that way til it gets cold again.

I've become addicted to the UK gardening shows that one can find on YouTube. The one fact that has been brought home to me is the HUGE difference in the climate, in particular Scotland. There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the fact that it's May, the ground is too cold to set out annuals, it snowed last week, the sun hasn't appeared for a fortnight, and the corn and tomatoes have to be grown in a greenhouse to ensure a crop, all this while giant monkey puzzles, large leaf rhodies, wellingtonias, eucalypts, and a myriad of southern hemisphere and Sino-Himalayan natives happily luxuriate in a climate with YEARLY AVERAGE temps not unlike many places in the US. It's got to be climate stability. The only place here that comes close to being able to grow what you do is very selected areas of the NW Pacific coast. And even at that they complain ALOT LOL.

I want floral_uk to picture this: right this moment as I write this am watching the pounding rain splash off my slate roof. w/o air conditioning its like a sauna. Tomorrow forcasted to be in the 90s°F. January OTHO can be bitter cold with a blazing, bright sun. My ancestors came here from Wales 2 centuries ago. What a shock it must have been.

Hi Sam - your ancestors would have been familiar with slate rooves and rain. But the temperatures would have been a heck of a shock.

Never seen T. baccata used or growing anywhere. As others have said, don't really think it happens much in the US unless maybe the PNW.

BTW, I'll bet western Norway is a lot milder in the winter than many an interior N. American locale. Definitely one of earth's wet regions as well.

Well, I guess I'm not the only one who hasn't seen them available in the US. There have been trees that look a little like them, but they are likely eastern red cedars. Our winters do have a way of fluctuating, so maybe that is why they don't do well here, IF they don't do well. But, how can one say they won't do well, if you can't try them? Thanks for the replies.

My guess is they were tried, when Europeans settled here and brought plants from their homeland several hundred years ago, and found wanting.

I imagine they certainly were tried. Yew was the wood used for the English longbow and Tudor settlers would have needed those. It was a culturlaly important species with many uses. Taxus baccata

Not in a cemetery, but there's a Taxus baccata at Westover Plantation (VA) that may have been planted by George Washington:

http://web2.cnre.vt.edu/4h/remarkabletree/detail.cfm?AutofieldforPrimaryKey=1976

BTW, I'll bet western Norway is a lot milder in the winter than many an interior N. American locale. Definitely one of earth's wet regions as well.

That's right.Taxus baccata is only growing along the west cost of Norway, where mild winds from the ocean makes the winters really mild. USDA zone 8-9, that's not much of a winter. On the other hand, they don't really have any summers either, but taxus baccata doesn't mind that. There is even one tree with a trunk circumference of 16,5 ft. That's big for this species.

I doubt I'll get over to Westover plantation. I may get to go to Va beach next month, and I'm gonna try to get my friend to go to Williamsburg, Va so I can see the Champion Compton's oak in person. I just know that it will be even more impressive in person. But, my friend is getting off 2-3 days, likely just 2, and it will be half a day driving there, I am in SW Pa pretty close to Ohio, so I'll be lucky to see the Compton's oak, she is going wanting to spend time at the beach, I'm going mostly to see that Champ. Compton's. I'll go to the beach also of course. I would think that there would be some Tax. Baccata in Maine or Mass. Isn't a bit like the Uk"s winters, well, maybe Maine and Mass are zone 6 at the coast, I thought that T. Baccata was zone 6 hardy. I know the lucky people in the UK have mostly zone 7-8 maybe 9. I know it isn't tropical, it gets cold but not below 0F (not sure how that is in Celcius. But, when i got to go there there were a few palms, pretty big ones, but they were wrapped up, the wind tore some of the wrap up, but, I'm sure Needle palms are fine there.

After some searching on the internet, and searching the Williamsburg, va champion trees, and any other large/older trees there, I see there is a Taxus baccata, an older tree in Williamsburg, va. I am hoping to see some of the Williamsburg, va champion, (or at least pretty large) trees. I really only SUPER care about the champion Compton';s oak. OVERCUP and LIVE OAK hybrid. I have about 8-9 of these seedlings, so i am interested in seeing how they grow. I am hoping to get to take a trip towards the atlantic and see the beach etc. It all depends on if my friend can get at least 3 days. I think of she can't get the days off I will need to pester my other friend to go with me.

G-d help us if this becomes another hardy live oak thread, but, yes poaky, if you go to Williamsburg, VA you should see the large and impressive Compton oaks there. And the live oaks of course.

Taxus baccata does grow in favorable parts of the Mid-Atlantic. However like the various English Hollies growing in "favorable" parts of the Mid-Atlantic - many of which the owner of McLean Nurseries believes are actually crosses with other old world hollies exhibiting hybrid vigor - they are often somewhat dwarfed. I've never personally seen a large, stately, healthy one as you see in the UK. The huge Taxus at Longwood, which is starting to look very mangy by their standards and may be gone by now, is not listed as a Taxus baccata, although they do have other Taxus they list as the pure species. The healthiest looking English yew/T. baccata I saw at the National Arboretum many years ago was actually labeled 'collected in Yugoslavia'...which should tell you something! There were some supposed T. baccata in Willliamsburg, actually, but they were kind of sickly looking and could well be dead now of root rot, after the terrible string of hot summers (2010,2011,2012). Williamsburg is the practical southern limit on the east coast of a variety of plants more accustomed to maritime climates.

This picture is representative of what to expect, I've seen several with this general appearance:

http://www.mdbigtrees.com/tree_detail.aspx?tree=TR20140416194102783

a T. baccata planted in England in 1803 would probably look better! Sam's tree above is probably the best looking English Yew I've seen on the east coast. I'll have to visit that cemetery if I'm ever in central Delaware and at a loss for something to do...

"Sourwood, AFAIK the tallest growing member of the Heath Family"

Had never really investigated this. It is, by 10 feet! ALJ NALT gives the tallest known sourwood as a 118' tree in NC, Wikipedia says the tallest known Rhododendron arboreum is 108', in Nagaland, IN.

Actually this more recent source for the US gives 108'...so I guess they are tied hahaha.

http://www.nativetreesociety.org/bigtree/webpage_tall_tree_list.htm

Thanks david-- I didn't know there were many Compton's oaks there.

David, if you are in Virginia..... Is Virginia beach close to Williamsburg? I know I could look it up myself, but, I just wondered if you live there, is it an easy little sidetrip? My friend is going for the beach, but, I really wanna see those oaks Live/Compton's. If you don't know I'll get into the mapquest search. I am the OP in this thread so I feel fine taking over my own post.

I'm calling this one Abies alba. It resides in a Quaker cemetery in Maryland. Note how beautiful it is with the branches retained all the way to the ground. Supposedly someone cut the top out of it when it was small for a Christmas tree.

Abies, it's a Fir right? Double trunked, nice form anyways.

Sam, sure that's Bigleaf? Sometimes hard to tell the difference between that and Umbrella magnolia.

Odd tree in a cemetery -- Washington Co, MD champ pitch pine:

http://www.mdbigtrees.com/tree_detail.aspx?tree=TR20121202083417693

Big Ginkgo in Washington Co, MD cemetery:

http://www.mdbigtrees.com/tree_detail.aspx?tree=TR20121201171521537

Here you go beng12. This better be M. macrophylla or I'm in a heap of trouble.

Agree -- seed-pods are different than my umbrella mag.

I've got a few Musa Basjoo this year, they are easy to grow sam_md you could easily grow them yourself.

sam_md, did you see a raven anywhere?

Well, there's a stone one shown on the memorial with the appropriate quotation. Does that count?

Taxus baccata in a churchyard I'm familiar with. I don't know their age but the church was founded 1300 years ago.

Looks like an old Yew, but, it seems the needles are kinda thin on it, though. Unless it just seems that way and they are up high mostly, but, it looks like it's really bare on the right side.

Every old thread is new again!

FWIW the very old (by eastern US standards) Taxus baccata I mentioned at Longwood was cut down. Probably planted by Dupont himself, which is why they tried to hold on to it for so long.

I wonder if the Yugoslavian form I spotted ages ago at Nat. Arb. is still there, or if it has ever been propagated. It's sad so many plants in that collection have probably never had a chance to be marketed. Like their incredibly subtropical looking Ilex purpureas.

Sugar Maple in fall colors, pic taken today in Maryland churchyard.

Poaky, the yew in my picture is certainly very old, easily 600 years and probably more. It is not particularly bare, that's just how ancient yew trees, and many other conifers, develop. The canopy is at the ends of the branches and it isn't actually thin. The photo was taken on a phone and the top of the tree is out of shot because it was precisely the gnarled branch structure which I found attractive. The thicker foliage to the left is due to a branch having been removed. Yew is unusual in having the ability to sprout from old wood. I actually think it would look better without the lower greenery.

Nice T. Baccata everyone, I have a Compton oak I wanted to plant by my dad's grave, but, the cemetary folks don't want people to plant trees there, but, I am tempted to plant it there anyway. I was gonna plant it a couple other places, but, I really want to plant it near my dad's grave. They have a Maple tree near his grave, but, Maples aren't going to live as long as an oak, so I am hoping to plant the tree when it's dark outside.

sam_md, I assume your pictured yew is in Longwood? Kinda sparse, but otherwise looks healthy.

LOL, Sam.

I look at many hort-related pictures on sites like flickr and even to some degree, instagram and pinterest (yuck). I had an obviously false memory of looking at some pictures of Longwood's fountain renovation project and thinking I saw that bed without that yew anymore. I know I did see it in person way back in 2015, after the 2nd polar winter, and it looked awful.

It's going to keep bugging me though...they have the money to have lifted it and put it somewhere, improved the soil drainage, and have put it back. Kew has done the same to even larger trees so I wouldn't put anything past an organization with a financial endowment close to 1 billion clams.

I once corresponded with someone there but I think that person got annoyed with me crowing about keeping the camellia they selected for hardiness alive in my garden during the polar winters, when they didn't LOL. (see, Sam, I am an equal-opportunity abrasive personality...though as Camp has alluded to in another discussion, maybe just in the wrong country)

Nice rant on your link above, davidrt28.

Austrian Pine, can you see the brown in the top? At one time this was a healthy, beautiful tree, today it has one foot in the grave due to disease & insects. Location Maryland

sam, there's a similar-looking, extremely limbed-up ponderosa pine at the VA State Arboretum.

Hi everyone, well, I DID get to Williamsburg, Va to see that champion Comptons oak and the many Live oaks they had there, BUT, my question is kinda stupid perhaps. I have a volunteer Yew seedling that a bird has sown in a very bad place for it to grow, BUT, I will NOT be digging it up, since I am sure doing so would mess with it and stop any progress of growth it would have now as it is. My question is that since it is a seed sown tree seedling, is it going to be a PURE Yew now? Meaning, is it NOT a "special" type of Yew? It SHOULD be a tree Yew or a Baccatta, right? Don't the special forms have to be grafted or specially primped to be that "fancy" form of Yew?

If it will be that tree form Baccatta I will go out of my way to make where it is a place where it can flourish. I will have to move some things BUT I will do it, sadly, it is near a bird sown Sassafras seedling also. I'll have to cull 1 of the 2 trees:(

Where the 2 tree seedlings are there are White pine roots, so, digging and replanting 1 of the seedlings isn't going to work out for me. I am not in shape to go busting my hump like that. I WILL move the other things that I can move though for 1 of the seedlings.

BTW, I have yet to plant any trees at my dad;s gravesight, BUT, I do want to, I just am NOT sure I CAN do it legally, there IS a graveyard that I am pretty sure I COULD plant a tree at BUT I know nobody buried there. It's a very OLD cemetary in town here, they have a very huge Shingle oak tree there. Well, when I say OLD, I mean OLD for US cemetaries, I know in the UK OLD means REALLY OLD. Also other parts of Europe have REALLY OLD cemetaries.