Gold Margined English Yew. When I first saw this Taxus cultivar in Japan, I could have sworn that it was a Cephalotaxus. It was in the garden of Dr. Masato Yokoi in Yamaguchi City just north of downtown Tokyo. Dr. Yokoi has authored a number of texts on colored leaf or variegated plants, as this was his academic specialty. He has co-authored a number of volumes of VARIEGATED PLANTS IN COLOR, which contains both Japanese and English texts. 'Summer Chocolate' Mimosa is one of his discoveries as well as Hydrangea paniculata 'Summer Snow.' There was not a plant in his extensive collection that wasn't variegated. The leaves on this selection were more or less on a horizontal plain like the needles of Cephalotaxus harringtonia 'Prostrata'. But later we were told that it was a Taxus instead. I was rather difficult to convince until I saw it growing in a similar environment in the Heronswood Garden in Washington and it was clearly tagged Taxus baccata 'Aureomarginatus'. Dan Hinkley, the founder of Heronswood shared cuttings with me from his own home garden and the needles were much shorter and in a more whorled pattern, much like all of the Taxus that I knew. This cultivar is spectacular in the spring when the new leaves emerge with their bright gold borders which slowly turn chartreuse and then green. So realize that when grown in shade, the foliage will resemble that of the pictures here, but if grown in more sun, its needles will be shorter and arranged in more of a whorled pattern around the branches. Here in the Deep South, i would far more recommend that it be planted in more shade, but further north, it will thrive in sun. Dirr gives the climatic range of 5-7, but it is thriving here in our mid zone 8 in the shade.
Zones 5-8
