The term evergreen is a catch-all word for a plant, tree, shrub, groundcover, vine or perennial that retains its foliage year around. Most often evergreen is used to label a tree or a shrub. The term semi-evergreen is also used to describe a plant that looses their leaves in the winter in cold areas and keeps their leaves all year in warmer climates.

Evergreen trees come in 2 general types. There are the thin leafed or needle leafed evergreen trees such as a fir or spruce trees. Most of the needle type are usually very cold hardy. The other type are frond or wide leafed trees such as the palm or magnolia trees. Most of the wider leaved evergreen trees are not cold hardy so they are found in warmer climates.