Best Evergreen Shrubs That Keep Their Leaves All Year Round

Best Evergreen Shrubs That Keep Their Leaves All Year Round

Are you tired of brown or tan winter landscapes that leave your garden looking lifeless? Once snow covers everything or dirt shows through melting snow in late winter, you'll appreciate having evergreen shrubs and winter interest plants in your landscape!

Instead of feeling discouraged watching deciduous shrubs lose their leaves, plant evergreen shrubs that maintain beautiful foliage year-round for continuous color, structure, and interest in your winter garden.

• Understanding Evergreen Shrub Types
• Top 5 New Evergreen Shrubs To Color Your Garden Year-Round
• Top 5 New Broadleaf Evergreen Shrubs For Year-Round Green
• Evergreen Shrub Care & Winter Protection
• Designing With Evergreen Shrubs
• Winter Interest and Garden Structure
• Build Your Year-Round Garden With Evergreen Shrubs
• Evergreen Elegance: Year-Round Beauty In Every Season

Understanding Evergreen Shrub Types

When selecting evergreen shrubs for your landscape, understanding the difference between conifer and broadleaf varieties helps you choose the right plants for your climate.

Conifer Evergreen Shrubs feature needle or scale-like leaves and offer excellent cold tolerance:

• Juniper shrubs - versatile ground covers and accent plants
• Yew shrubs - excellent foundation plants
• Cypress shrubs - fine-textured foliage in various colors

Broadleaf Evergreen Shrubs have flat, broad leaves and often provide flowers or berries:

• Holly shrubs - glossy leaves with winter berries
• Boxwood shrubs - classic hedge plants
• Rhododendron shrubs - large leaves with spring blooms

Both evergreen shrub types provide year-round structure, define garden spaces, create natural privacy screens, and offer wildlife habitat during the winter months.

Top 5 New Evergreen Shrubs To Color Your Garden Year-Round

There are several evergreen shrub varieties available beyond the common needle-bearing types! For gardens large and small, these evergreen shrubs add color to your landscape, define the edges of garden beds and borders, and brighten winter borders. A specimen planting that lets you see something green in a sea of white can make all the difference while fighting seasonal affective disorder!

Try out one of these more unusual evergreen shrubs to enliven your winter - and all year long, for that matter!

1. Yewtopia Plum Yew Shrub: Compact, dark green needles; deer resistant; 3-4 ft tall and wide
2. Blue Princess Holly: Blue-green foliage; bright red berries with a nearby male pollinator; 8-12 ft tall, 6-8 ft wide. Red berries if a Blue Prince or male Merserve Holly is nearby)
3. Green Velvet Boxwood: Rounded form; rich evergreen leaves; 3-4 ft tall and wide
4. Fragrant Mountain Sweet Box: Glossy leaves, fragrant winter blooms, red berries; 2-3 ft tall
5. Golden Mop False Cypress: Golden thread-like foliage; soft texture; 2-3 ft tall, 3-4 ft wide
6. Roseum Elegans Rhododendron: Glossy evergreen foliage; large lavender-pink spring blooms; cold-hardy and dependable; 6-8 ft tall, 6-10 ft wide

These underused and lesser-known evergreen shrubs provide refreshing green hues, and sometimes even gold, bronze, burgundy, and red to your landscape! They're perfect regardless of how much space you have available.

Top 5 New Broadleaf Evergreen Shrubs For Year-Round Green

In addition to Rhododendrons, some Azaleas, Holly, and Boxwood, many other broadleaf shrubs keep their leaves year-round. These look fantastic, especially when paired with Viburnum and Winterberry Holly, which may lose their leaves, but have persistent colorful berries for you to enjoy all winter!

Here are a few broadleaf evergreen shrubs you may not be familiar with!

1. Cranberry Creek Boxwood: Dense foliage for compact hedges. Growing just 2-3 ft tall, 3-4 ft wide
2. Otto Luyken Laurel: Glossy leaves; fragrant white blooms; and shade-tolerant. Growing 3-4 ft tall, 6-8 ft wide
3. Heller's Japanese Holly: Small, rounded leaves; dense form. Growing 2-4 ft tall, 3-5 ft wide
4. Gold Splash® Wintercreeper Euonymus: Bright gold-and-green variegated leaves; tough and low-maintenance; evergreen color all year. Growing 2-3 ft tall, 3-4 ft wide
5. Emerald Beauty™ Cotoneaster: Glossy foliage; wildlife-friendly red berries. Growing 3-5 ft tall, 4-6 ft wide
6. Dwarf Burford Holly: Dark green leaves; bright red berries; 4-6 ft tall and wide

These broadleaf evergreens provide natural screening and give overwintering birds and winter-weary gardeners something green to enjoy during cold, short days.

Evergreen Shrub Care & Winter Protection

Proper care ensures healthy evergreen shrubs that resist winter damage, pests, and diseases. Newly planted shrubs are especially vulnerable, but established shrubs can also suffer from extreme conditions.

Protecting from Winter Burn

In areas where dry fall weather precedes winter, evergreen shrubs can suffer from winter burn and desiccation.

Prevention strategies:

• Deep watering in fall before the ground freezes
• Apply 3-4 inches of mulch around the shrub base
• Use burlap screens for wind protection in exposed areas
• Consider anti-desiccant sprays for vulnerable shrubs

Winter Watering

Both conifer and broadleaf evergreen shrubs lose moisture through their foliage year-round, even when temperatures rise above freezing. Water when the ground is dry but not frozen, especially during warm winter periods. If it's been unseasonably warm and dry with a freeze predicted… It's time to water!

Mulching and Root Protection

Proper mulching provides multiple benefits:

• Insulates roots from temperature fluctuations
• Retains consistent soil moisture
• Suppresses competing weeds
• Apply 3-4 inches of arborist mulch around your shrub's root system, keeping mulch away from stems or cluttering up the crown

Designing With Evergreen Shrubs

Evergreen shrubs are the backbone of four-season garden design, providing essential structure, privacy, and year-round color when deciduous plants are dormant.

Foundation Plantings:

• Varying heights - tall shrubs at corners, medium at windows, low along walls
• Use repetition of the same varieties for unity
• Mix green, blue, and golden evergreen foliage for color harmony

Creating Privacy Screens:

• Informal hedges with mixed varieties for a natural appearance
• Formal hedges using a single variety for clean lines
• Layered plantings with tall shrubs behind shorter ones

Seasonal Interest Combinations - Pair evergreen shrubs with:

• Winter berry plants - Winterberry Holly (with a male pollinator), and Beautyberry
• Colorful bark - Red Twig or Yellow Twig Dogwood bushes
• Ornamental grass for seed heads and texture

Winter lighting: Add LED landscape lights to highlight your evergreen shrubs and create dramatic winter effects!

Evergreen Elegance All Year

Evergreen shrubs give your garden its 'bones' in winter while offering texture, color, and wildlife benefits year-round. They:

• Provide structure to beds and borders
• Offer privacy and wind protection
• Keep color in the garden when deciduous plants are bare
• Support wildlife with food and shelter for overwintering birds

Success Factors For Choosing Evergreen Shrubs:

• Choose appropriate varieties for your climate zone
• Provide proper winter protection for newly planted shrubs
• Plan for mature sizes when selecting locations
• Combine different types for maximum visual interest

Additional winter garden elements:

• Contorted and twisting branches like Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
• Bright red berries of Winterberry Holly
• Red and yellow stems of Dogwood shrubs
• Persistent seed heads and berries that feed over-wintering birds

Winter is an excellent time to assess the look of your landscape and plan evergreen shrub additions. Professional landscape designers emphasize structure - the plants that look good year-round. Evergreen shrubs provide that essential framework.

Evergreen Elegance: Year-Round Beauty In Every Season

If you're dreaming of crisp, formal hedges, lush foundation plantings, or a wildlife-friendly retreat, then there's an evergreen shrub at Nature Hills that is ready to deliver color, texture, and charm in every season! These versatile garden staples keep their good looks long after other plants have gone dormant, ensuring your yard is anything but drab in the colder months.

Don't let another winter slip by with a dull, lifeless view! Start planning your evergreen shrub garden now and enjoy vibrant foliage, seasonal blooms, and a thriving habitat all year long.

Happy Planting!