Plant Profile: Hicks Yew for GTA Gardens — Evergreen Structure, Privacy & Layering
How We Use Hicksii for Evergreen Hedges, Layered Planting, Privacy and Structure in GTA Gardens
Hicks Yew: One of the Evergreens We Keep Coming Back To
When we design planting for homes across Toronto and the GTA, Hicks Yew (Taxus × media ‘Hicksii’) is one of those plants that keeps finding its way back into our plans.
Not because it is the showiest plant in the garden.
It doesn’t flower like a Hydrangea, change colour like a Japanese Maple, or create the movement of an ornamental grass. What Hicksii gives us instead is something just as important: reliable evergreen structure.
We use Hicks Yew as a taller evergreen hedge, a privacy screen, a background layer in planting beds, a way to soften architectural corners, and sometimes simply to give lower planting something taller and darker to sit against.
Its upright habit, pruning tolerance and ability to perform in a range of GTA garden conditions make it one of the most flexible evergreen shrubs in our planting palette.
And as boxwood has become a less predictable choice in Southern Ontario, Hicksii has become even more useful—particularly when we need an evergreen with more height and presence than smaller alternatives such as Inkberry.
This Plant Profile is less about telling you what Hicks Yew is, and more about how we actually use it in landscape design—and why it continues to work in so many different gardens.
Hicksii and Hillii — A Quick Note
Hicks Yew (Taxus × media ‘Hicksii’) is the variety we use most often and the focus of this Plant Profile. You may also come across Hill’s Yew (Taxus × media ‘Hillii’), a closely related male cultivar. Their landscape roles can overlap, but for our projects, Hicksii is generally the variety we find ourselves specifying more frequently.
As a Larger Evergreen Hedge
This is probably the most obvious use for Hicks Yew.
Hicksii has a naturally upright growth habit, which makes it very useful when we want height without immediately giving up a large amount of planting width.
We may use it for:
Privacy screening
Property-line planting
Pool or patio backgrounds
Larger evergreen hedges
Formal or semi-formal planting
Another advantage is the range of nursery sizes available.
For some projects, we may start with smaller material—often around the 40–60 cm or 3-gallon range—and allow the hedge to establish and mature over time.
For other projects, especially where privacy is needed more quickly, we may use much larger specimens.
That flexibility allows us to design around both the budget and the desired immediate effect.
The important thing is that we are not only designing for installation day.
We are thinking about what that hedge should look like in three, five or ten years.
Creating Structure in a Layered Planting Bed
One of the most useful things about Hicksii is its ability to provide height without becoming visually as heavy as a large evergreen tree.
We often design planting beds in layers.
The front may contain groundcovers.
Behind that, we may use perennials, grasses or shrubs in the two- to four-foot range.
Then we still need something taller in the background.
That does not always need to be a tree.
A taller Hicksii can become the second, third or final structural layer of the planting.
Its dark green foliage also creates a strong background for lighter planting in front.
White Hydrangeas, Hostas, Japanese Forest Grass, Salvia, ornamental grasses and flowering perennials all become easier to read when they sit against a deeper evergreen backdrop.
Sometimes a planting bed does not need another colour. It needs another height, another form, or a stronger background.
That is where Hicksii becomes particularly useful.
Adding Form to Large Areas of Low Planting
A large Hosta colony is a good example.
Hostas can create a beautiful mass in a shaded garden, but when too many plants share a similar height and rounded form, the entire bed can begin to feel very horizontal.
Introducing a taller Hicksii changes that immediately.
The Hosta is broad, low and rounded.
The Hicksii is upright, narrow and vertical.
That contrast creates another dimension in the planting.
The same principle applies beyond Hostas.
Whenever we have a large area of relatively low planting, one or several upright evergreen elements can help break up the mass and give the eye somewhere to move.
The goal is not always to add another feature plant.
Sometimes the goal is simply to improve the composition.
Defining Driveways and Walkways
Planting can also help define how people move through a property.
A driveway, front walk or garden path becomes much stronger visually when its edges are reinforced by planting.
Hicksii can be used as a continuous hedge or selectively at key locations such as entrances, turns and transitions.
Because it can be maintained in a relatively clean form, it works particularly well when the landscape has a more architectural or formal character.
It gives the hardscape a clearer edge and helps separate one space from another.
In this situation, Hicksii is not only being used for privacy.
It is being used to organize space.
Screening a Fence
This is one of the most practical uses.
Many GTA backyards are surrounded by wood fencing, and sometimes the fence is not something we want to become the dominant background of the garden.
Cedar is an obvious screening option, but it is not the only one.
Hicksii gives us a different look.
Its foliage is darker and finer, and when used in front of a fence it can gradually push the fence visually into the background.
We can use it as a continuous screen or combine it with shrubs, grasses and perennials to create a more layered planting.
Instead of looking at a fence with plants placed in front of it, the goal is to make the planting become the background.
Foundation Planting and Architectural Corners
Hicksii is also very useful around buildings.
One situation we pay particular attention to is the outside corner of a house, where two walls meet.
A tall, exposed architectural corner can sometimes feel abrupt when there is nothing around it.
A Hicksii with enough height can help soften that transition.
It does not need to hide the house.
Its job is simply to introduce a vertical natural form beside a very strong architectural line.
From there, we can step the planting down with lower shrubs, perennials and groundcovers.
This creates a more natural transition from the building into the landscape.
That is one of the main purposes of good foundation planting: not to cover the architecture, but to help the architecture and garden feel like they belong together.
Why Hicksii Works in So Many Different Projects
One of the main reasons we continue to use Hicks Yew is its adaptability.
It can perform in full sun, partial sun and a considerable amount of shade.
That matters in established GTA neighbourhoods, where mature trees, neighbouring homes, fences and building orientation can create very different light conditions within the same property.
It also responds well to pruning, which gives us long-term control over its form.
A Hicksii can be maintained as part of a clean hedge, allowed to become a larger vertical accent, or incorporated into a more natural layered planting.
That flexibility is what makes it so useful.
We are not limited to one look or one application.
Why Hicks Yew Keeps Showing Up in Our Designs
Hicksii is rarely the plant that steals the show.
And that is exactly why it works so well.
It can create privacy without becoming the entire design.
It can add height without the visual weight of a large tree.
It can hide a fence, strengthen a walkway, soften an architectural corner or create the background behind an entire planting bed.
Sometimes we use it as a hedge.
Sometimes we use only one.
Sometimes it sits behind flowering plants and is barely noticed on its own.
But very often, it is one of the plants that makes the rest of the landscape feel complete.
At Horvath Landscapes, that is what makes a plant valuable.
Not simply how impressive it looks by itself, but how well it helps the entire landscape work together.
Citation:
Yew “hicks.” Weaver Family Farms Nursery. (n.d.). https://weaverfamilyfarmsnursery.com/products/yew-hicks?srsltid=AU7gw4Xm0-qywo6JnwDdU_-Ioem3_RNfJ2gJpZi-3Kr6xkTwV6PHcEnJ
Taxus X Media “hicksii.” BambooPlants.ca. (2026, August 30). https://bambooplants.ca/product/hicks-yew-taxus-x-media-hicksii-yew/
Cis Pośredni hicksii 20-40cm idealny na ... - erli. (n.d.). https://erli.pl/produkt/cis-posredni-hicksii-20-40cm-idealny-na-zywoplot-i-szpaler,176294676
Hicks Yew, Taxus X Media “hicksii”, Monrovia Plant. (n.d.-b). https://www.monrovia.com/hicks-yew.html
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