‘Golden Dragon’ Plum Yew

Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Golden Dragon’

Plant Details

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 6a–9b Find Your Zone

Plant Type: Evergreen Shrub or Groundcover

Height at Maturity: 24-36″

Width at Maturity: 3-5′

Spacing: 3-4′ for mass plantings; 8′ for space between plants

Growth Habit / Form: Mounding, Spreading

Growth Rate: Slow to Moderate

Flower Color: NA

Flower Size: NA

Flowering Period: NA

Flower Type: NA

Fragrant Flowers: No

Foliage Color: Golden Yellow, Green

Fragrant Foliage: No

Berries: No

Berry Color: NA

Sun Needs: Morning Sun With Afternoon Shade, Filtered Sun

Water Needs: Average, Low when established

Soil Type: Clay, Loam, Sandy, Silty

Soil Moisture / Drainage: Well Drained Moist to Dry when established

Soil pH: 5.0 – 7.0 (Acid to Slightly Acid)

Maintenance / Care: Very Low

Attracts: Visual Attention

Resistances: Deer, Disease, Drought, Dry Soil, Heat, Heavy Shade, Insect

Description

Sure to brighten up your landscape, the Golden Dragon Plum Yew is an elegant evergreen plant with a low and spreading vase-like habit and attractive arching branches covered with glossy, flattened, bright golden yellow needles that provide very unique and outstanding texture and color in the landscape. Golden Dragon will grow in shade or full sun in USDA Zones 6 and 7 but likes a break from direct afternoon sun in in zones 8 and 9. We suggest 4 hours or more of direct sunlight for best golden foliage color. The more sun the plant receives the brighter golden the foliage!

Landscape & Garden Uses

Growing in a low and spreading mound 2 to 3 feet tall and 3 to 5 feet wide, the Golden Dragon Japanese Plum Yew is ideal for use as an accent, in groupings or mass plantings, or as a border along walkways and in sunny to partially shaded landscape borders and home foundation plantings. It is an excellent choice for an evergreen groundcover under the canopies of large trees that are limbed up enough to allow some direct sun. Looks very nice around garden ponds or in rock gardens near boulders. Also suitable as a solo or combined with other plants in pots, planters and other containers. A fine addition to Asian gardens, yellow theme gardens, perennial gardens, rock gardens, tropical look gardens, wildlife gardens, and the Xeriscape (Low Water needs)

Suggested Spacing: 3 to 4 feet apart for mass plantings; 7 feet or more for space between plants

Note: For our customers who live and garden North of USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 6a, where this Plum Yew variety is not reliably winter hardy, you’ll be happy to know it can be grown in containers that can be brought indoors during winter and placed back outside when temperatures warm up in spring.

Growing Preferences

The Golden Dragon Plum Yew is very easy to grow in most any moist but well drained soil of average fertility and full sun to part shade. The more direct sunlight the plant receives the brighter golden the foliage will be. In Zones 6 and 7 the plants will tolerate full sun. In Zones 8 and 9 we suggest morning and or late afternoon and evening sun with afternoon shade or filtered sun during the afternoon. Requires little to no pruning and we’ve seen no serious disease or insect problems. Deer won’t touch it!

Note: For helpful advice provided by our experts, click on the Planting & Care tab above on desktops and below on mobile phones.

Helpful Articles

Click on the link below to get helpful advice from our experts on how to plant, fertilize, prune and water Plum Yews.

How To Plant & Care For Plum Yews

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