The growing season is wrapping up in many parts of the country and soon the landscape will burst into all its final colors before winter turns the view outside your window a bleaker series of browns, tans, and gray before it all goes white.
Unless, of course, you were a savvy gardener who included Evergreen trees and shrubs in your landscape design!
Whether you are looking for a single specimen tree to adorn with lights this winter, or a more utilitarian hedge for blocking drifting snow and wind, the Evergreen has been top for its ability to look great year-round while fulfilling a landscape purpose.
Be it year-round privacy and screening, or property definition, friendly fencing, and barriers that don’t stop when the leaves drop, a good living hedge makes good neighbors!
Not only are evergreens wildlife-friendly and have added the interest of ornamental cones and a wide variety of needle colors, but they are long-lived while adapting to some of the most adverse range of growing conditions out there!
Sun seems to be the common factor for these trees and shrubs, except the Canadian Hemlock which can tolerate more shade, so as long as you have this and some good soil that drains well, you too can enjoy one or more of these incredible winter interest plants!
Check Out Nature Hills Nursery's Favorite Evergreens For Winter Interest!
Find your Hardiness Zone and measure your space for size and then choose an Evergreen to add interest to your winter landscape!
The epitome of winter interest, the Pine is a versatile and bird-friendly addition to any yard but is especially prominent in the winter seasons! The long tassel-like needles and bottlebrush branches stand out with their fine texture yet stand up to snow load, wind, and storms.
Try a traditional and stately Eastern White Pine or add depth and drama with a Thunderhead Japanese Black Pine. The fat and fluffy Austrian Pine, or mighty Ponderosa brings more than evergreen foliage to the table all year round! Want something smaller and kind of quirky? Check out the Green Penguin Dwarf Scotch Pine!
Hot growing zones benefit from the northern Christmas tree look by planting a Japanese Black Pine, while native Lodgepole and Loblolly Pine Trees grow tall and mighty in a wide range of conditions.
Canadian Hemlock
Ever so soft and graceful, and usually hidden among the understory during the growing season, the shade-loving Canadian Hemlock (aka Eastern Hemlock) is gearing up to shine! Growing mighty in form, these elegant evergreens also come in a smaller and narrower form, the Alpha Upright Canadian Hemlock.
Juniper Trees
Junipers are hardy evergreens with showy berries and sharp awl-like needles. They have a texture and movement in the landscape all their own, plus unique berry-like 'cones' and a strong yet pleasant resinous fragrance.
Try a pointed and shaggy Taylor Juniper or an upright growing columnar Spartan Juniper, a silvery Moonglow Juniper, or the bronzy winter tones of the bird-friendly Eastern Red Cedar (actually a Juniper!) are ready to stand tall against the drifts of winter snow.
False Cypress
Sculpted, soft, and lush green needles of the False Cypress are among the favorites for including in Asian-inspired gardens and as specimens - both in the landscape and in the container garden! Similar in look to Arborvitae and Cypress, these unique plants have a texture and quality all their own!
Generally smaller in stature and in a pyramidal upright form or a rounded globe, False Cypress are living works of art without any of the maintenance to make them that way!
The fluffy Soft Serve® False Cypress, these evergreens seem to be a cross between the Arborvitae and the Juniper in looks but with their very own unique qualities!
Try a sculpted Slender Hinoki False Cypress for upright interest, or a touch of low-growing gold with an upright chartreuse with a Goldcrest Lemon Cypress. Add privacy or block the wind and drifting snow with the Pinpoint® Blue False Cypress.
Classic CypressTrue Cypress (Cupressus) trees are typically found in hot growing zones around the Mediterranean and thrive in harsh climates with little moisture. Usually forming tall slender columnar forms that are densely packed with short evergreen needles (almost like a Juniper in texture), the Cypress is prized for its scent and durable rot-resistant timber.
Those in warmer frost-free growing zones who crave the look of the northern Blue Spruce benefit from the Arizona Cypress Tree, while those gardeners looking for a Mediterranean flair can go for the skinny dark greenery or blue-greenery of Italian Cypress!
Some hybrid Cypress include two fantastic fluffy evergreens that are must-haves for privacy fencing you need in a hurry! The Leyland Cypress and Murray Cypress are awesome windbreaks and screenings that fill in fast.
Have some fun with the living sculpture that is the Green Arrow Weeping Alaskan Cedar which is actually a Weeping Cypress that thrives in coastal Northwestern North American climates. Tall, skinny, and oh-so-unique, this soft green tree is a stand-out specimen!
Spruce Trees
The classic Christmas Tree! Nothing stands out more than the compact pyramidal branching of the Spruce! There is something about silvery blues in the plant world, especially when adorned in twinkling white lights during the gloomy winter months. And few evergreens are bluer than Blue Spruce!
Try a Colorado Blue, Columnar, Fat Albert, and Slenderina Weeping Blue Spruce, or go green with a Korean Spruce, a green Colorado Spruce, or the popular Black Hills Spruce Tree!
Fragrant Cedar TreesNot just for Mediterranean climates, Cedar are versatile and adaptable trees when looking for something a bit more non-traditional in the garden!
From the green-toned and fluffy Cryptomeria Radicans and Cryptomeria Yoshino Japanese Cedar to the large native Deodar Cedar, the Cedrus family has a lot to offer the winter landscape! Try a spikier textured Blue Atlas Cedar or a smaller Horstmann Blue Atlas Cedar!
Arborvitae ThujaThere’s a wide variety of Arborvitae Trees that are generally considered living fences and landscape workhorses like the fast-growing Green Giant and lush Emerald Green Arborvitaes, but there are many others that have quality ornamental appeal to add to their utilitarian appeal!
From the spire-like American Pillar Arborvitae to the gilded Forever Goldy® Arborvitae, there’s a unique Thuja available for you! Want more pyramidal evergreen form? Go for a First Editions® Technito® Arborvitae! Want spring greenery in the fall and winter months? The Sugar and Spice Arborvitae is everything nice!
Holly TreesBoth deciduous and evergreen Holly Trees have something to offer during the winter months, the broadleaf evergreen Hollies have the biggest green impact against the white of the snow!
From the stately American Holly tree and Nelly Stevens to the smaller and skinnier Sky Pencil Holly.
Redwood TreesThe mightly Redwood may seem like a pipedream for the home landscape but you’ve got urban landscaping options! If you have the room then a Soquel Coast Redwood, or Aptos Blue Coast Redwood are great evergreen and deciduous coniferous options!
With fine-textured needles and textured, colorful shaggy red bark, a Redwood is sure to be a lasting legacy tree in addition to their incredible foliage or impressive structure in the winter.
Podocarpus
Similar in form and look to Yews (Taxis), the Podocarpus, also known as the Plum Pine, also has soft-to-the-touch foliage that almost looks leafy but handles hotter growing zones, while the Yew can handle cooler climates. Try a slim growing Shrubby Yew Podocarpus that grows 15 - 20 feet tall, or an enormous 40 - 50 foot tall Fern Podocarpus for something unique among your neighborhood's more typical evergreens!
Broadleaf Evergreen Options
Not every evergreen has needles! Broadleaf Evergreens look like your typical foliage plant but keep those leafy leaves all year round too! Plus you benefit from flowers in the spring and sometimes ornamental fruit in the summer or autumn as well! Win-Win!
Broadleaf Evergreen Tree Options For Cold Climates
Cold weather and broadleaf evergreen trees may not always go hand in hand, there are a few trees that defy the chill of winter and keep their leaves.
When you need broadleaf evergreenery in tree form, check out a Little Gem Magnolia, Sweet Bay or Bracken's Brown Beauty Magnolia which typically keep their foliage year-round unless it is an especially harsh winter in Zones 5 to 7, when they will act semi-evergreen or even deciduous. Or try a skinny yet 15-20 foot tall Skywalker Boxwood for some upright green punctuation in the landscape.
Broadleaf Evergreen Tree Options For Hot Growing ZonesWhile you won’t have as bleak a landscape in the winter, nor deal with a sheet of white outside your window for months on end, hotter growing zones are finally getting relief from the summer heat and this is when many of your evergreen plants bloom!
Frost-free climates of USDA planting zones 8 and up can enjoy Catalina Cherry Trees, Dwarf Strawberry Trees, or the Marina Strawberry Tree for year-round foliage, plus flowers and showy/edible fruit! Southern Live Oaks, Screen Play Holly, Japanese Blueberry Trees, and broad-leaf evergreen Magnolias shine alongside Windmill Palms and Brentwood Australian Tree Ferns.
Green Up Your Winter Months!
It’s easy to go green - even in the dead of winter! Choose conifers of all shapes and sizes plus flowering broadleaf evergreen options to mix into your garden for that much-needed burst of color!
Nature Hills has all these great plants and more to enliven your landscape throughout the growing season and beyond!
Happy Planting!
