Use Evergreens For Landscape Design

Due to their all-year beauty, hardiness and longevity, evergreen plants are worth their slight additional charge relative to deciduous trees which drop their foliage in winter.

Evergreens range from broad-leaved shrubs, such as rhododendrons and laurel to cone-bearing pines and distinguished spruces.

Especially excellent as wind screens, the giant spruces and firs are frequently used not only for their beauty, but also for their form. Also, such species do well in the shade, which causes them to be excellent choices for fundamental layout.

Following are some very renowned evergreens to choose from (alphabetically presented):

Cedar

The decorative Arbor Vitae, for example cedar, produces the flat evergreen branch often found in floral arrangements at Christmas. It thrives best in moist, protected places. While it can be cut to any size or shape, left alone it forms a broad 35 to 50 feet high pyramid.

Fir

Strong, resilient, and drought-resistant, the Douglas fir grows quickly and compactly. The best fir choice for wind breaks and privacy, its lofty pyramid makes a good lawn feature. White fir has an attractive silvery color, while balsam fir, AKA the Christmas tree, is noted for its special fragrance and shining foliage.

Hemlock

The hemlock tree/shrub, with feathery foliage, is most effective when planted in a grove with others. The Canadian hemlock can be easily sheared for symmetrical effect.

Juniper

The large species of juniper, such as the formal columnar juniper and the upright juniper, are quite useful in planting. As a spreading evergreen, the Pfitzer juniper is best used for banks, edgings and ground cover. Its green feathery foliage grows quickly, can withstand crowding and at maturity stands 8 feet high, and up to 12 feet across. Ground-covering junipers include creeping, prostrate, Sargent, and Waukegan.

Pine

The most widely known evergreen is the pine. Renowned for its long, soft, light silvery-green needles, the white pine can reach 80 feet at maturity. In addition to the white pine, the red pine is great for backgrounds and windbreaks. A broad, compact tree, the ponderosa pine is used for protection and ornamental screens.

The Austrian pine (black pine), popular in the Midwest, has a rich, green color and spreading branches.

Spruce

Short and thick, with light blue-green needles, the white spruce reaches 70 feet and is good for general landscaping and privacy screens. Although it does poorly in drought and heat, the Colorado blue spruce is a hardy tree. Red cedar, on the other hand, is a fine decortive evergreen for hedges and wind breaks because it withstands dry weather, further the thick green foliage is bronze tinted in winter.

Perhaps the most widely planted wind breaks evergreen, the Norway spruce is hardy. A slow grower, it has short needles of dark green and is compact and pyramidal shaped. The Black Hills variety grows to 40 feet in time, and is hardy and drought-resistant.

Yew

With its thick, glossy needles and dense, upward-reaching branches, the yew is useful as both a shrub and tree. While it grows well in sun and shade, it's best used as a single element against a wall of the garden rather than as foundation planting. The low-spreading bushy dwarf yew can be clipped, while other varieties such as the upright yew and Japanese yew are tapering or conical plants best used for hedges.

Protection

Since evergreens tend to be adversely affected by dry, hot summer weather, they should be watered every 10 - 14 days during that time of year. Be sure the water reaches at least 6 inches deep.

An excellent way to protect the evergreen from loss of water in dry weather is with a mulch of grass clippings or peat moss.

To help an evergreen thrive, pruning in the late spring is recommended, making sure that the inner branches will develop.

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