Hi Boyd, Yes they do survive in Louisiana. Have sold several to customers as far south as Oakdale.
BTW: These trees have all been bare rooted....the "PA clay" Irene speaks off is from a project some years back where I experimented with collecting Yews and shipping them to customers with them receiving the material with in three days of collection. These were shipped with original root ball intact. The idea was that the customer shared the first year risk of a newly collected tree...hence the price was dramatically reduced (up to 80%).
It was a successful experiment from a horticultural stand point. All the trees shipped to the best of my knowledge are still a live and kicking. It also helped expose customers to yews as material. It was not so successful when it came to people relating that experiment, I lost business when they said "once I removed the clay" leaving out the details why they had the clay in the first place. Put a bad light on how I offer trees.....lesson learned
Tom I was in no way casting negative feedback on you, I followed the instructions you gave (having no former experiance with Yews).