Best evergreen trees for landscaping

The most spectacular garden compositions are based on a harmonious combination of various forms of evergreens

Winter-hardy plants are planted not only in open areas, but also in flowerbeds and flower beds. Evergreens are combined with many annual or perennial crops. In flowerbeds, it is better to plant them in such a way that they act as the main decoration of the created composition. This is important, because otherwise they will not be noticeable against the background of those plants that “fall asleep” for the winter.

Evergreens can improve the microclimate. Such cultures relieve the site of monotony, go well with other garden crops.

Coniferous evergreen trees and shrubs - description with photo

The choice of evergreens is very rich. Among them are not only conifers, but also evergreen deciduous shrubs and trees. Different in size, growth rate and height, evergreen crops will be appropriate not only in large areas. Low-growing varieties are no less popular, especially when the size of the plot does not allow planting other types of crops. The list of evergreen conifers is long, consider the most common.

When choosing conifers, you should pay attention to the most unpretentious plants that do not require special care.

The popularity rating among conifers is headed by spruce

Pine

Despite the dense crown, pines begin to thin out over time. The trunk of the tree is quite long, and the bark has a dark brown tint. As a rule, there are no problems with pruning, only the crown is given the desired shape in the summer, until the movement of the juice has stopped. To obtain side shoots, pinching is carried out in the spring. It is not recommended to choose pine trees for making a hedge, as they thin out, which can ruin the entire composition as a whole.

Pine trees are drought-resistant and thrive on poor sandy soils

Mountain pine with a squat crown is often planted on alpine hills. Thanks to a large selection of varieties and a variety of decorative forms, arborvitae today can be found in almost every landscape project.

Western thuja does not do well as an ornamental shrub and natural hedge

Along with tall thujas, there are low-growing and spherical plants. The latter grows well in the shade of tall trees

Thuja occidentalis is the best suited for creating a green hedge. It grows rapidly and after 3-4 years allows you to get a full-fledged "live" fence.

Since the thuja has a shallow root system, it can be transplanted at any time of the year. However, the ideal period for this would be spring. You need to know that thuja does not grow quickly in order to get an even crown, it needs uniform lighting.

Yew

This plant can rightly be called a long-liver among evergreen crops. The tree has been growing for three millennia. It is characterized by rich green needles, as well as small red cones. Yew loves the shade, so a site where there is not enough sun will be an ideal place for him.

Yew is the leader among conifers in terms of shade tolerance and unpretentiousness to the soil

Bark, needles and cones contain toxic substances, it is strictly forbidden to eat them. Wash your hands thoroughly after completing the work.

The yew is easy to cut, which makes it possible to give it absolutely any shape.

Cedar

Like other conifers, cedar is decorative all year round. Of course, this is a real decoration of the site, because its bright green branches look especially beautiful against the backdrop of white snow.

Siberian and European cedar are distinguished. The first is more suitable for mild climates, the second can easily withstand the most severe frosts

Cedar is considered an unpretentious plant, its stem is small but powerful. In height, the tree can reach 40 m, and its diameter is about 2 m.

Despite its impressive size, this evergreen tree will look good not only on a large plot. A free-standing cedar will also become a real decoration of even a compact area.

Hem

This is a small evergreen tree from the pine family. Despite the fact that hemlock is a short tree, this evergreen plant attracts attention with its beautiful wide crown. In landscape design, hemlock is often chosen if it is necessary to add zest to a rocky area.

Canadian Hemlock has a weeping crown shape and prefers moist, fertile soils

Even in a small area, this conifer will look great. Hemlock can be planted both separately and together with other conifers.

Many people make the mistake of planting conifers too close together. Despite its large growth, hemlock takes a lot of nutrients from the ground. It's worth considering!

Juniper

There are coniferous plants that have both shrub and tree forms. Juniper is one of them. Its height can reach 3 m, but the tree can grow up to 12 m. The bark of seedlings is mostly reddish-brown in color, in an adult plant it is brown in color.

Junipers grow well both in sun and partial shade. The photo shows a spectacular composition of juniper and fern

Rocky junipers look great as single compositions

The needles of the juniper are in pairs, between the conifers you can see large cones that look like berries. Ephedra can be planted together with other ornamental plants, such as tapeworm. Juniper fits perfectly into various styles of landscape design. It is planted in flower beds, lawns are filled with it, and the conifer also looks great as a hedge.

Cypress

When planting cypress on the site, you should know that this conifer does not like shade. Otherwise, the tree is unpretentious, can be planted on any soil, easily tolerate drought. Separately, it is worth highlighting the types of cypress that have a pyramidal and curved crown. Very often, a monumental cypress can be seen on the territory of sanatoriums and recreation centers.

Cypress - a resident of the southern regions and does not tolerate severe frosts

Deciduous trees and shrubs - description with photo

Evergreen deciduous trees and shrubs native to tropical countries, most of them require warmth. Consider the most popular types.

Boxwood

This is a small tree, rarely exceeding 10-12 m in height, the leaves are small and dense. In the axils of the leaflets you can see small white flowers forming a spikelet. Boxwood is ideal for framing roads, and thanks to easy pruning, the tree can be given a variety of shapes. However, it grows rather slowly.

Boxwood is often recommended for beginners, because it is extremely difficult to ruin it by negligence. The plant is not afraid of both short-term drought and waterlogging of the soil

Guayacum

This is a low plant (6-10 m) with a diameter of 0.7 m. The tree has many curved branches that form a dome shape. The leaves are a rich green hue, leathery dense. Guayacum is unpretentious, tolerates drought well, and can be planted on any soil.

Guaiac tree is cultivated for ornamental and medicinal purposes

Laurel

A low tree with dense glossy leaves that have a pleasant aroma. All parts of the laurel contain essential oils. The flowers are small, the fruits are similar to berries.

Laurels are ideal for shearing, suitable for creating hedges and garden compositions of the most diverse forms. The leaves are dark green in color. Inflorescences in diameter no more than 6 cm. This is a heat-loving plant, all year round in open areas can only be located in the south, where the air temperature does not fall below + 8 degrees.

Oleander is used as a specimen, in group plantings, when decorating alleys, stairs and terraces

Star anise

An evergreen shrub that can grow up to 15 m in height. Leaves are dense, their length reaches 15 cm. Flowers come in different shades: burgundy , red, yellow. Star-shaped fruits. The plant is unpretentious, but prefers partial shade. To form a beautiful bush, it is regularly pruned.

Star anise prefers partial shade, blooms from March to May

Camellia

This evergreen shrub will make a spectacular addition to any garden. Dark green foliage retains its appearance throughout the year. Camellia flowers, which are very similar to roses, come in different shades: red, white, pink. Due to the rapid development, the shrub will embellish the site in a short time.

Blooming camellia brings life to any corner of the garden

Japanese camellia often used as a hedge

Ivy

With this climbing plant, you can create amazing compositions that will transform any site. The plant is tall, grows up to 30 m. More often, common ivy or the Hedera helix species is used in landscape design. Another famous species is Hedera colchica. Ivy has large leaves (up to 25 cm) of green, yellow color, and brown color is also found. In autumn you can see umbrella-shaped inflorescences, in spring black berries appear.

Many landscapers choose ivy for vertical gardening

This evergreen creeper is often used to decorate fences, terraces and balconies.

Holly

The leaves of the holly are dense with teeth on the edges, saturated green. The plant also ripens berries, which come in different shades: black, white, yellow, red. Among the decorative forms, it is worth highlighting the common holly, which has a domed shape. The culture is not demanding, it makes excellent hedges. Planted singly or in groups with other plants.

Bright holly berries remain on the branches until spring

Olive

Deciduous shrub resembling a small tree. It reaches a height of 2-4 m, the branches are grayish-brown in color, on the shoots there are spines 5 cm long. The foliage is silvery in color and has an ovoid shape.

European olive can grow in one place for hundreds of years

This is quite a spectacular plant, so it can often be seen on the site. It is used both for single plantings and in a group with other crops. Thanks to the unusual color of the leaves, the plant can act as a background, making other plants look advantageous.

When planting evergreen trees and shrubs on the site, they should be properly cared for. Only in this way will plants decorate the site all year round.

Video: Evergreen hedge

Photos of examples of evergreens in landscape design

Evergreens in landscape design

Evergreens in landscape design

Material information

Category: Landscaping

Published: November 23, 2012

Views: 11721

• Trees

Plants for green curtains

Among all the functional roles that evergreens perform in the garden, the role of green curtains is perhaps the most noticeable. An even background, a magnificent frame, on which a pond and a recreation area flaunts, determine the whole appearance of a summer cottage.

It is no coincidence that the green curtain or, in other words, the hedge got its name: plants planted in this capacity should always remain attractive.

But these wonderful giants are not only decorative, they also provide privacy and peace for the inhabitants of the site, hiding the garden from strangers, and often too curious eyes.

A full-fledged green curtain, which gives the garden not only intimacy, but also a sense of depth and space, can only be created with the help of evergreen conifers that do not lose their bright greenery all year round. But the dominance of one color does not mean monotony and dullness.

Forms and details come to the fore in the green background of landscape design. Sheared large-leaved plants and trees and shrubs with a dense small-leaved crown can create a surprisingly diverse ensemble of unique shades of such a rich nuanced green color.

By creating a hedge of evergreens, you make garden maintenance easier: such a landscaping base does not require much maintenance and at the same time creates a permanent attractiveness of garden compositions. Without green curtains, it is impossible to imagine a garden that meets modern requirements for high efficiency and low labor intensity.

Green curtains take center stage on the plot in winter, when the basic structure of the garden (and the miscalculations in it) is visible to the naked eye. Powdered with snow and powdered with hoarfrost, magnificent coniferous plants enliven a boring winter landscape and fill it with life, retaining their attractiveness even during bad weather.

Coniferous plants, despite the common advantages of a stable decorative effect, are not at all monotonous. Among them there are columnar slender beauties that will enrich the vertical structure of the garden; lush and spreading plants with a wide crown, which will create the perfect backdrop for delicate spring blooms, a summer parade of colors and a fiery autumn palette; spherical and pyramidal small trees and bushes that will become spectacular accents, both in the wings and inside the garden.

It's not easy to choose evergreens

A little negligence when choosing species and varieties of trees or the wrong choice of "neighbors" - and the green scene from the main connecting element and the basis of the design will turn into a monotonous and unattractive uniform background. Boredom and monotony guaranteed.

Do not plant conifers with the same shape next to each other, color scheme or foliage type. Neighbors must be contrasting. Plants with a rounded crown are perfectly combined with pyramidal or columnar ones; sheared - with landscape, natural lines of other cultures.

The centerpiece of plant selection is certainly the color palette, as green offers a surprisingly rich selection of nuances and tones. By playing with a variety of shades, you can even achieve the effect of an inner glow of the scenes. So, variegated plants planted next to dark green crops with an even color will look luminous and compensate for the gloom and narrowing of the space.

For each green colored plant, consider one with red, blue or yellow leaves. So, freshness and unexpected colors will be brought by twisted pine and all conifers with a blue color. And laurel cherry, in addition to lush greenery, will also add beautiful flowering in spring to the ensemble.

Plants are also very specific in terms of growth. The one that catches the eye first should be surrounded by a group of expressive and contrasting undersized or medium-sized crops. Spherical crowns, plants with weeping branches, creeping shoots or creeper shrubs weaving along supports will look best with giants.

Gorgeous holly, boxwood and yew look great in the composition, the combination of yew berry, pachysandra apical and common ivy will not yield to them in elegance. If verticals and strict forms need to be introduced into the garden, pay attention to the common juniper, which, next to contrasting plants, seems almost like a man-made column.

In addition to large green fences, it is often necessary to create a small group on the site, which either helps to zone the space or emphasizes the stylistic design.

In particular, it is impossible to imagine the Mediterranean style without groups of cypress trees imitating the natural landscape. There should not be many evergreens in groups. If we are talking about tall columnar crops, then they are planted in a row. To create a small backstage group, only plants of the same height can be used.

In the role of a single plant, weeping spruce will feel great, which makes an indelible impression with a long train of branches hanging down.

Plant selection for hedges - backstage is complicated by small garden plots

Large crops in a small area will confuse, hide already small areas, stand out from the environment and create discomfort.

When choosing coniferous trees and shrubs, it is very important to choose those that will not become too large for your garden even after decades. Plants with a weeping crown are always appropriate in any garden, for example, mulberry, holly, birch varieties "Pendula". Touching, tender, "sad", they fill the gardens with romance and grace.

All creeping plants will not exceed one meter in height, but will create a horizontal green background and perfectly emphasize higher crops. Especially good in this role are dwarf spruces, junipers, spindle trees. All decorative conifers are usually limited to 1-2 meters in height, which allows them to harmoniously “fit” them even into small gardens. The main thing is that the crops you use are slow growing.

Hedge

• Back
• Forward

Grapes

• Landing
• Care
• Vine

• In gardens and household plots, you can choose a warmer place for planting grapes, for example, on the sunny side of the house, garden pavilion, veranda. It is recommended to plant grapes along the border of the site. The vines formed in one line will not take up much space and at the same time will be well lit from all sides. Near buildings, grapes should be placed so that water flowing from the roofs does not fall on it. On level ground, it is necessary to make ridges with good drainage due to drainage furrows. Some gardeners, following the experience of their colleagues in the western regions of the country, dig deep planting holes and fill them with organic fertilizers and fertilized soil. Pits dug in waterproof clay are a kind of closed vessel that fills with water during the monsoon rains. In fertile land, the root system of grapes develops well at first, but as soon as waterlogging begins, it suffocates. Deep pits can play a positive role in soils where good natural drainage is provided, the subsoil is permeable, or reclamation artificial drainage is possible. Planting grapes

• It is possible to quickly restore an obsolete grape bush by the method of layering (“katavlak”). To this end, healthy vines of a neighboring bush are placed in grooves dug to the place where the dead bush used to grow, and sprinkled with earth. The top is brought to the surface, from which a new bush then grows. Lignified vines are laid on layers in the spring, and green ones - in July. They are not separated from the mother bush for two to three years. A frozen or very old bush can be restored by short pruning to healthy above-ground parts or pruning to the “black head” of an underground trunk. In the latter case, the underground trunk is freed from the ground and completely cut down. Not far from the surface, new shoots grow from dormant buds, due to which a new bush is formed. Grape bushes that have been neglected and severely damaged by frost are restored due to stronger fatty shoots formed in the lower part of the old wood and the removal of weakened sleeves. But before removing the sleeve, they form a replacement for it. Grape care

• A gardener starting to grow grapes should study well the structure of the vine and the biology of this most interesting plant. Grapes belong to liana (climbing) plants, it needs support. But it can creep along the ground and take root, as is observed in Amur grapes in a wild state. The roots and the aerial part of the stem grow rapidly, branch strongly and reach large sizes. Under natural conditions, without human intervention, a branched grape bush grows with many vines of various orders, which comes into fruiting late and yields irregularly. In culture, the grapes are formed, give the bushes a form that is convenient for care, providing a high yield of high-quality clusters. Vine

Lemongrass

• Landing
• cultivation

• In the literature on climbing vines, the methods of preparing planting pits and the planting itself are unnecessarily complicated. It is proposed to dig trenches and pits up to 80 cm deep, lay drainage from broken bricks, shards, install a pipe to the drainage for food, cover it with special earth, etc. When planting several bushes in collective gardens, such preparation is still possible; but the recommended depth of the pit is not suitable for the Far East, where the thickness of the root-inhabited layer reaches 30 cm at best and it is underlain most often by impervious subsoil. Whatever drainage is laid, but a deep hole will inevitably turn out to be a closed vessel, where water will accumulate during the monsoon rains, and this will entail damping and rotting of the roots from lack of air. Yes, and the roots of actinidia and lemongrass vines, as already noted, are distributed in the taiga in the surface layer of the soil. Planting lemongrass

• Schisandra chinensis, or schizandra, has several names - lemon tree, red grape, gomisha (Japanese), cochinta, kojianta (Nanai), kolchita (Ulchi), usimtya (Udege), uchampu (Oroch).

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