Yew plants are easy to love

'Tis the season for saying "I love you." Valentine's Day or not, you might also say "I love yew" -- the plant.

You might love the way yew is so easy to grow. Just stick yew in any soil that is well-drained and yew'll quickly develop and bear fruits. And what a pretty sight are the scarlet fruits of yews -- each with a dark, brown seed peeking out its end.

Yew tolerates winter cold and even polluted city air. Yew does not like full sunlight in howling, winter winds, but with a little shelter is otherwise happy in either sun or shade. And yew wood is rich, red, fine-grained, and strong, yet pliable. Yew finds its way into fine cabinetry, and Robin Hood allegedly used a branch of yew to make his longbow.

Yew can be tall and thin, tall and fat, short and thin or just spread out over the ground Yew also tolerates pruning well.

But even the rose has its thorns; yew also has its shortcomings. Deer love yew. And almost all parts of the plant are poisonous to humans.

Worst of all, though, and perhaps because the plant is so tolerant of site and pruning, yew too often is just planted against house foundations and sculpted into gumdrops and cubes.

One more problem you might have noticed with yew is its name, which always needs to be followed by a qualifier. The plant sometimes goes by its botanical name, Taxus, but how does "I love Taxus" sound, especially now, with tax forms arriving in mailboxes?