. . . is new again.
Way back when — March 2002 to be exact — I ordered a pair of Taxus bacccata aka Irish yews at $8.00 each from the original Heronswood Nursery. You can imagine how small these shrubs were when they arrived in the mail. Twenty years later they are larger but not the 8' tall drama queens I was expecting them to turn into.
Not long after my Heronswood yews were planted Mark came home from working at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens annual plant sale with his own Irish yew. He didn't know we already had a pair of them. His was a named cultivar — Taxus bacccata 'Bean Pole' — and was already a couple of feet hight. BUT he paid $70.00 for it! I was appalled. Twenty years later it's obvious his was the smarter purchase.
So imagine my surprise and delight when I unexpectedly found a lone Taxus baccata 'Green Column' at our local K and A Greenhouse at the end of June. I paid $81.99 and didn't blink. In fact, it seemed like a steal to get a plant the size of the one Mark bought 20 years later and it only cost $12.00 more. It was orignally discovered at Jeddeloh Nursery in Germany. I also happen to have a Jeddeloh Hemlock.
Each year my original pair of Heronswood yews lose a lot of their growth to winter burn. So I moved one of the original pair to the back garden where it gets eastern sun. It came through the winter in better shape than this one on the north side of the house.
This one is currently looking so good I can't decide if I should just leave it alone or move it as well. Yews can generally take sun or shade and Mark's specimen is on the north side of the house in a lot of shade. It's also protected from winter damage by a huge old Arborvitae next to it. This one is in more southern light coming over the house and is much more exposed in the winter. Since I don't have twenty more years to watch this slowly grow it probably means I should indeed move it.