10 Evergreens Every Garden Should Have! 🌲🌲🌲 // Garden Answer

Hey guys, how's it going? Today I want to talk about 10 different types of evergreens that I think every garden should have. Evergreens are just such an important part of our landscape. They bring the weight to our garden, the bone structure. They provide year-round interest and there's so many beautiful varieties out there. Now I garden in a zone 6, formerly a zone 5. Zones are based off of a 10-year average of wintertime temperatures and about two years ago we were bumped from a zone 5 to a zone 6. We also live in eastern Oregon, high desert, hot in the summer, cold in the winter, high soil pH, fairly windy area, very low humidity. So I wanted to mention all of those factors because all of the evergreens that I am going to talk about today I have personally grown and had success with except for a couple which I will when I get to those I'll mention that they're brand new and I'm excited to try them. So anyway, I'm not sure where the line is that kind of divides the northern climate gardeners from the southern climate, but most of these evergreens prefer a colder growing climate. They need those weeks or months of cold temperatures in order to thrive. But there are a few that I'm going to talk about that go up to about a zone 9. So I did want to mention that. So let's just jump right into our list with number one, which of course are boxwoods. I can't talk about evergreens and not include boxwoods because they are an enormous part of our garden. I love boxwoods in pretty much any form. In their natural form, in hedges, in topiaries, in containers, I mean just wherever. I just really like the versatility of the shrub because you can put them in a full sun area or a full shade area and you'll get pretty much the same growth because I find, you know, I've got a lot of hedging around here. I tend to like a formal garden design and if you've got a long hedge that starts in a really sunny area but then kind of curves, I've got a couple of these that kind of curve and end up in a more shaded area under a tree canopy. If you planted something that couldn't survive both of those kind of light requirements, you would have one side of your hedge look very lush and full and the other side look kind of scraggly and sad, but with boxwoods you get kind of the same growth and they look beautiful all the time. I've got a bunch of boxwoods in containers that winter over really well for me and yeah, I just, I feel like they're just so versatile and beautiful. I also like that they're not a needle type evergreen. They've got more of a broad leaf, more shiny, a little bit more interest. I've got five different varieties in my garden that I wanted to run through. There are a lot of varieties out there though. One I have a lot of is Sprinter. Now it grows two to four feet tall and wide, zone five through nine. It is an improved version of the second type I have, which is called Winter Gem. They are different in their growth habits though. I think Sprinter is supposed to grow a little bit faster. I haven't noticed an enormous amount of difference in the growth rate, but Sprinter is a lot more dense and grows more upright while Winter Gem grows a little bit more airy and a little bit more spread out, if that makes sense at all. And Winter Gem has a little bit more of a broader leaf to it. Winter Gems also bronze a little bit more in the winter and then they take on that vibrant green again in the spring. Sprinters don't do that quite as much. Also Winter Gems grow about four to six feet tall and wide. So if you've got an area where you want something larger, that might be a good option as opposed to if you have an area that you want something to naturally stay smaller, Sprinters might be good. The other varieties I have are North Star, which grow about two to three feet tall and wide that has a much deeper green leaf, a little bit more pointed. I have an area where I keep mine hedged into it like a one foot by one foot hedge, like a micro hedge. And I've got them back planted with Hellebores and they've done really, really well in that space and that's another space that hardly gets sun and they just look really, really good. I've got Green Mountains, which have kind of the same leaf structure as the North Stars, little bit more pointed, a little bit more deep green and they grow in a natural cone shape. So about five to six feet tall, about, I don't know, three to four feet wide at the base. So even if you don't shear yours, which I do keep mine shorn fairly tight, they still will have that kind of more conical shape, which brings a different feel to the landscape. Now that one is a zone four through nine. So if you're looking for a variety to put in a container or something that's just a little bit more tough, the Green Mountain might be a good variety, especially if you're putting them in containers because it's the rule of thumb to choose something that's rated two zones colder than your growing zone. So for me growing things in a zone six, I would need to choose things that are zone four to have that two zone buffer, to have less risk in carrying it over in a container. However, I have Sprinters and Winter Gems in containers as well and have not had a problem wintering them, but it is more risky. And then the last variety I have is also a zone four through nine and it's called Mont Bruno. It's the only one out of my list that's like the traditional English boxwood. It's the Buxus Sempervirens, which that one can tend to have the smell. So I see that that complaint being made about boxwoods a lot, but it's just a specific type of boxwood that has that when they bloom. So if you're wanting to avoid that, you want to get a Buxus Microphylla or a Sinica, I English type. I only have a handful of Mont Brunos, though, so I've never experienced that smell. Possibly if you had a bunch of them in like a hedge situation or if you had them right by your front door, I'd maybe be able to smell it. But I've really enjoyed mine. And the Mont Brunos grow about three by three and have really little leaves. So it's just a completely different look. Number two on my list are Weeping Alaskan Cedars, actually two different varieties that I've grown, one of which I have currently in our garden and one of them I had in our last garden. So there's the traditional Weeping Alaskan Cedar, which I have here. Botanical name is Camasiparas Nucatensis Pendula. Beautiful trees, beautiful alone. Like I just have one by itself or beautiful in a grouping. But they have the most graceful kind of majestic quality to them. They have a central trunk and then very nicely spaced branching that have their leaves kind of needles. I don't know if you call needles or leaves, but they kind of drape off of those gracefully arching branches. And they're a little bit more broad and full than the Jubilee, which is the second type. Jubilee, they both grow about the same height, 25 feet tall and about the same width, which is 12 feet wide. But Jubilee appears more narrow. It might form branches that reach the 12 feet, but it just it's more erratic in its growth pattern and produces kind of arms. So if you want something that has more of a uniqueness to it, a unique quality or a Dr. Seuss-esque vibe, Jubilee might be a really fun option for you. They're both really good in our area. The one that I planted over here, I watered it in when we initially planted it and then I haven't watered it since. It's right at the bottom of our only slope in our entire property is right at the end of the west side. It just barely slopes down. And I have a whole bunch of drip up at the top. And I thought, well, I better not put any drip to this tree because it's going to get a bunch of runoff. And sure enough, it's just done really well there. They're both a zone five through seven. I have seen some sources put them at a zone four, all the way up to a zone eight. I don't know if I would necessarily trust those two. I see more sources say five through seven. And they both put on about 15 inches of growth per year. Number three on my list are Leyland Cypress. And I've always loved Leyland's. I think they have the most graceful structure. They're actually a hybrid between the Camus Cypress Nucotensis, which we just talked about, and a Cypressus, which is a cypress. So you kind of get kind of the best of both worlds. You get this really architectural looking tree without the weeping factor. There's no weeping factor to it, but it gracefully moves in the landscape. Now, ours, when we moved in here, it was already planted and pretty good size, but it was looking very stressed. We noticed that the drip system right beneath it was not functioning. The drip tubing was all plugged up with hard water. So we replaced that and we noticed almost immediate improvement that season. It started to turn around and green up and it has put on a lot of growth. Ten year size for the standard Leyland can be anywhere from 20 to 30 feet tall, and then its mature size can be upwards of 50 feet tall and 20 feet wide. There are some other varieties, though. So there's one I'm very familiar with, have not grown it personally, but we sold a bunch of them down at the garden center when I worked down there. It's called Emerald Isle and it tops out at 25 feet tall and only eight feet wide. So if you're looking for that Leyland Cypress kind of look with the same growth habit. So three feet of growth per year is what these will put on, which is like that's amazing. If you want a quick growing hedge, that might be something to look into. They are a zone five through nine. I'm not sure if I mentioned that there are some gold varieties. There's one I think that's just called Golden. And then there's one called Gold Rider. Now, the Gold Rider is really striking and it's something I'd really like to try out my garden. I think it grows about 30 to 35 feet tall, 15 feet wide. I might have to confirm those specs, but I'm going to have to designate like I'll have to save a spot for one. But I think that that would be beautiful to have that bright gold show up. And it's not like a dirty gold. It's really bright. I love it. There's also a variety called Naylor's Blue, which we also sold down at the garden center quite often. It had a very blue, gray, green kind of vibe to it. And it would grow about 10 to 15 feet wide. So kind of somewhere in between. But I have seen some sources say it can get upwards of anywhere between 30 and 100 feet tall. I can't imagine a cypress growing that tall here in our area. I would think that it would top out here maybe between 30 and 40 feet, possibly. But that would be a striking thing to see. I would love to see that. Numbers four, five, six and seven are all types of spruce trees. Spruces are one of my favorite evergreens on the larger scale of things, of any evergreens that I could put in my garden. I like I have to kind of force myself to put pines and things. I like pine trees, but I like spruces so much more that I tend to like I tend to want to load up on those and kind of scoot the other ones aside. So between boxwoods and spruces, I would be set. But we've got four different categories of spruces I want to talk about that have done really well in our yard, starting with the blue spruce, Colorado blue spruce, Picea Pungens. So they are native to like the Rocky Mountain areas, Colorado, eastern Idaho, up into Montana, and I think as far south as New Mexico. And the two varieties I want to talk about in particular are Avatar and Hoops. So Avatar, I don't know why it took me a while to get one in the garden. They are more expensive and harder to find than the Hoops blue spruce, for sure. Avatar is probably the iciest blue spruce I have ever seen. When it pushes its new growth in the spring, they look like silvery, like just silvery blue powder puffs, super soft, super sweet. And it's got a very symmetrical, very beautifully tiered growth habit, so it looks really perfect from all angles. I planted one behind the gazebo when the gazebo was still there and the gazebo is gone and now the Hartley greenhouse is there. And so I cannot wait for that one to get a little bit bigger and we'll be able to see that through the glass of the greenhouse from a couple of the sides. I think that'll be such a beautiful view. They grow about 20 by 15 and they're also a zone two through seven. I think they put on maybe 12 to 15 inches of growth per year is about average. The other variety, the Hoops blue spruce, is very similar to the Avatar. It's not quite as bright of a blue. It's still a very bright blue, but it doesn't have that silvery white quality that the Avatar does. And it grows a little bit bigger. So 25 feet tall, still to 15 feet wide, 12 to 15 inches of growth per year, zone two through seven. We planted three of these Hoops spruces out in our south garden in the same corner, not right next to each other, but they're kind of in this curve around the corner. And they've got things in between them. But I think that they're going to be so beautiful once they're all grown up and looking like this beautiful silver evergreen block over there. They also have a very tiered growth habit, but a tiny bit more irregular than Avatar. If you were to compare the two of them together, the cones they produce are really beautiful. They kind of have like this pink look to them in the beginning. And then, of course, you know, they turn blue or brown rather, and they're beautiful to use in projects. I do feel like I need to mention that we did lose a blue spruce this year. Those of you who watch our videos probably saw when that blue spruce fell down. It was here when we moved in. Majestic, massive, mature blue evergreen. And it's a huge loss in our garden. But we realized that was an isolated incident that doesn't happen in our area. I've never heard of a blue spruce falling down. But once it fell down, we saw that it was a B&B tree and all the stuff, all of the basket and the rope was still left on that root ball. And so we had our arborist look at it and he said, yep, that's probably what did it. It just weakened the root system. And it took that we had a 70 mile an hour wind gust storm come through. It just took that one time. It's probably been, you know, kind of hanging on by a thread for a while. And it just took that one to bring it down, which was, you know, that was a huge bummer. But, you know, it's really opened our eyes and it's really made us address our planting practices going forward, making sure to remove all that stuff when we plant our trees. Number five is another type of spruce called a weeping white spruce. It's a Picea glauca. They're native to like southern Alaska through through Canada to Newfoundland and like down into the cold states like upper Minnesota and Montana, New York, Wisconsin, all of those areas. It's a zone two through seven again. So incredibly winter hardy. The cool thing about this one, we have one right up against our house, actually. And the reason we could do that is because it only grows four feet wide. So if you've got a small garden and you want some evergreen interest, this might be a really good option. They grow 12 to 15 feet tall. I think they average about a foot of growth per year, but they've got the central leader and then really like strict weeping branches on the sides. And it's just a really unique look in terms of color. It's kind of got a blue green sort of look like kind of on the gray green spectrum. It's a very soft color and it also can tolerate a little bit of shade, not full shade, of course. Most of these can't. But the one that I have, it's shaded in the in the morning. So it's shaded in the morning until about early to mid afternoon is when it comes into the sun. And it still does really well for us. Number six on my list are a couple of types of Serbian spruce. Absolutely gorgeous spruces, Picea omerica or omerica. I'm not exactly positive how to say that one, but native to western Serbia and eastern Bosnia. So very winter hardy. The first one is called Blue Sky. It's a zone four through nine. We planted it this year. We bought it as a bald and burlap tree. We removed everything from around the root ball and we planted it, planted it out in the full sun in the South Garden. And it's got the most gorgeous architectural shape. Like I look at that tree and think I need to have a couple more of those somewhere else. They're just so beautiful. 30 feet tall is where it will top out at 15 feet wide. So it will be a huge, striking evergreen out there. The cool thing about the Serbian spruce is that they have a bicolor like green and icy blue, both on the same, but very distinctive. It's not a meld of the two colors. It's like one side of the needle is green and one side is an icy blue. So it gives it a really unique vibe. The other type of Serbian we have is called a Deruder. Now, both of these have a fairly slow growth rate, like six to eight inches per year versus, you know, the 12 to 15. So it's like half the amount, which is kind of nice in some areas. You don't want something to grow and take over super quickly. This one will grow about 10 feet tall, eight feet wide. So a lot smaller than the blue sky, still the same kind of bicolor needles. And it's got more of a cone shape, but it's kind of irregular at the same time, if that makes any sense. It's just got a very unique look to it. And I think they look so beautiful next to red leafed things. So I put a Royal Raindrops Crabapple next to the blue sky. And then I'm thinking I've got a Black Lace Elderberry next to the Deruder. I'm thinking of maybe nine barks and things like that around that area would be really beautiful and maybe a Golden Smokebush. I think that would be awesome. And number seven is our last category of spruce, which is Picea abies or Norway spruce, the first variety being red tipped Norway spruce. And this is an absolutely beautiful tree. I have one here in our garden. It's on the small side, like I want to say it's maybe stands four feet tall. And then I have one in our last garden that's absolutely spectacular, you guys. I mean, this tree is so beautiful. I wish I could just scoop it up and bring it to our garden here. They grow 25 feet by 15 feet, so 25 tall, 15 wide. Very open structure of this plant. But in the spring, the new growth on this one is bright red. It's a very unusual for an evergreen. So it has this beautiful, almost bloom look to it. And then that bright red kind of turns into maybe a rust color and then it turns into the green growth. It's just such a beautiful, different, unique look for an evergreen. And I've always been drawn to the structure of that one. The way it looks is just so pretty. And I do have some space saved for one out in the new property because I just got to have it. You tell it is a zone three through eight or nine, depending on what source you see it. I see mostly nine, though. So it's something if you live in one of the little bit more mild climates, it might work for you. And it grows about 12 to 15 inches per year. The other variety in this category I really love is the red cone Norway spruce, which has kind of the same look in terms of the red growth and things, but it stays smaller. It almost has a spreading quality to it. You know, a lot of the other evergreens we've talked about today grow quite a bit taller than they do wide. So they have that definite tree shape. This one grows about 12 feet tall and eight feet wide. So it's got a little bit more of like this rectangular shape, if that makes sense. It doesn't have a strong of a central leader. It kind of just takes on a kind of wild looking growth habit, but very beautiful and very tough. Also a zone three through eight or nine likes full sun. This one's a little bit slower growing about eight inches per year. The growth rates I'm talking about are all kind of just an average. You know, it just depends if you have a really wonderful year, mild temperatures, a lot of rainfall, you know, all those sorts of things. If it's in perfect soil, of course it's going to grow faster because it'll be less stressed than, you know, more hot years, bad soils, all those sorts of things. So there's a lot of factors that play into the growth rates of these plants, but the numbers I've given you are definitely an average. Number eight is the North Pole Arborvita. I believe the correct pronunciation is Arborvita, but we say Arborvita in our region. It's a type of Thuja and a beautiful evergreen that grows 10 to 15 feet tall, three to five feet wide. Excellent for screening things. We've used it though in several different applications for screening along the west side of our property. In fact, I don't know if you can see behind me kind of, it's probably blurred out a little bit, but there's a solid green wall behind me. That's North Pole Arborvita. So we've used it along the whole edge of our west, the west side of our property. And then we've also planted them as specimens in flower beds because they bring this beautiful striking vertical accent. And they're also great for containers because they're a zone three through seven. So like for most of us, you know, I don't know how many of you guys garden in like zone two and three. I know there are some of you guys, but excellent choice for containers because they are so winter hardy. I love the deep green color of the arbs and how soft they are. And their smell, it's just a really wonderful sweet smell and deer resistant. Also hardly ever need to prune this if at all. I mean, we've had to prune a couple of branches. We had one winter where we got a lot of snow, heavy snow, kind of wait, wait a couple of the branches down. Looking back, we would have probably tried to provide a little support to them. Like maybe tie them up a bit. Had we known that that was coming, but we had to prune a couple of branches out. And that is it. And then this variety was actually selected from some trials out of Minnesota, I think because it came out as resistant to winter burn. And I haven't noticed anything like that on any of our arbs up to this point. So really, really excellent luck with those. Number nine is the pinpoint blue fall Cypress. Now I have one on our West side. I originally had three, so I've had a little bit of a go around with this variety, but I think I figured it out and it's something that was totally my fault. The soil on the end of the West side holds onto a ton of water. I had a lot of drip up on the upper part of that flower bed where I planted these pinpoint blues right below it is where I planted that weeping Alaskan cedar. And just depending on the water runoff. So the cedar is doing great, but up on the top where all those Cypress are getting that deluge of water, a couple of them did not survive. And it would like just didn't click with me until after I realized like they specifically say that you need to plant this in an area with good drainage. So I have since removed the drip from around the one that survived and made it through all of that, uh, that time of, of a ton of water. And it's looking so beautiful. So I'm excited to see how it's going to grow 15 to 20 feet tall, five to six feet wide. And it is a zone five through seven. Um, I'd like it because of the color. It's got that really beautiful feathery foliage that's blue. I think that type of evergreen is really easy to pair with kind of hard house colors like a brick and things like that. That can be hard to plant up against and plant other things than just green. So I think it's a really pretty, um, specimen to plant in areas like that. Also the fact that it doesn't get super wide makes it easy to tuck in. Number 10 are junipers, which is pretty much the only evergreen that are native to our area. In fact, junipers are pretty much native to everywhere in the world. I think you can find junipers that live in any location. Um, there's lots of different varieties, lots of growth structures, growth habits, colors, all those sorts of things. We have a few in our area that we lean heavily on. One is called Spartan. It's a vertical upright growing kind of pyramidal shaped supposed to grow 15 feet tall and five feet wide. They grow bigger than that in our area, like double at least in width, if not more double that size, because they do so well here. Once they're established, you don't have to do anything with them. You don't have to water them extra. They deal with our high pH, our dry, our wind, all of that sort of thing. They're also amazing to use as a topiary forms for containers. There's own four through nine and I've used lots of them as I've got right now, some triple decker, you know, topiaries and some double decker topiaries spirals are really great. Junipers do really great just because they're so tough and they actually handle pruning better than boxwoods do for us. They don't Brown out like boxwoods do. So they're a little less tricky to find that pruning window. There's a new variety coming out next year called Aqua Vita. I think it's next year. Maybe it was this year, but I hope I get some of them because they are icy blue, beautiful three to four feet wide, 10 to 15 feet tall zone four through nine. Again, they produce beautiful berries. So the birds really like the trees. And I just really like that blue color in the landscape so much. Another variety of juniper I'm excited about is called Tortuga. So it grows two feet tall, three to four feet wide. So while it's a shorter growing juniper, you know, there are some that will form a mat and get huge. I don't really have an application where I want to have that sort of growth habit, but it's nice to have differing sizes of evergreen. So if I have one that's just the two feet tall, three to four feet wide, it's got this really delicate look to it. It almost looks kind of sparkly. This is a zone two through seven. So that should be a really fun one. The last plant I wanted to mention real quick are euonymus because they are a really great evergreen shrub. There's lots of different growth habits of those two ones that stay kind of short that want to kind of do more climbing ones that are more shrubby. The one in particular that I love is called Manhattan. It's got a really big, broad, glossy green leaf. Um, but I didn't really want to include it in my 10 because I've never grown it in the landscape. I've just grown it in containers and it's wintered in containers beautifully for me. Um, it's a zone five through eight and it's a shrub that'll grow six to eight feet tall and I think about five feet wide. It's something that I would like to try out in the landscape, um, to see if I can get it to thrive in our soil and something that I could use to hedge instead of, um, boxwood maybe as an alternative. Uh, but I just think the plant itself is gorgeous and I don't even trim mine up. I just let it be kind of a natural shape in the container and it's really pretty. So I thought that was worth mentioning because I've seen people train euonymus into a screen like on a trellis. Uh, and I've seen people use it in all kinds of different applications and they've got some really different, um, variegations too. There's some yellow and green ones, white and green ones, straight green ones. And so there's just like a really good, um, variety of those. So that's it. You guys, those are the evergreens I wanted to talk about today and I hope that this video was interesting or helpful. I know it can be overwhelming when you're starting to plant, plan out a landscape, especially when you're planning out the bone structure. Because if you get the bone structure wrong, everything else kind of doesn't fall into place quite naturally or doesn't feel right. But when you get that bone structure right and you really love the things that are in your garden, everything else just kind of fills in and it just feels, feels right. So anyway, thank you guys so much for watching. We'll see you in the next video. Bye.