Evergreen Shrubs

Autumn colors are spectacular. The colors and textures are unique to the four seasons of the mountain West. As we wrap up the last autumn leaves, the landscape can feel naked and bare. Deciduous plants, which lose their leaves through winter, often expose you to prying eyes, vehicle glare and a yard that feels empty. Evergreens take center stage for the next few months, and you can feel when the landscape doesn’t have the right mix of evergreen trees and shrubs.

Not to worry, you will find the best selection of winter evergreens at Watters Garden Center now, and it’s an excellent time to plant one of your own.

Here are the Top 15 most popular evergreen shrubs planted through winter.

Blue Star Juniper – This is strictly a foliage plant. If you like the look of a blue spruce tree but lack the space for something that big, merely scale down and grow a Blue Star Juniper. With its short blue needles, it looks terrific when planted next to shrubs with golden foliage.

Boxwood – This is a small, rounded evergreen that forms tufts of growth resembling clouds if left unpruned. This slow-growing dwarf form is ideal for edging borders along pathways or around flower beds. It is well-suited for topiary and containers and resistant to boxwood leaf miners.

Gilt Edge Silverberry – A splendid Arizona native, this shrub sports a combination of golden-yellow margins on bright green foliage that provides incredible year-round landscape interest. It’s superb as a hedge or low screen that tolerates heat and wind and requires little maintenance. Tiny, fragrant, silvery flowers followed by ornamental red fruit. Impervious to both javelina and deer.

Heavenly Bamboo is an evergreen with bright red highlights through winter. Bamboo-shaped foliage is graced with clusters of white flowers in spring that form red berries as summer heat arrives. Think versatility with this 3-foot-tall plant, as it is happy in any amount of sun, most soils, and tolerates any amount of cold or heat.

Holly is a broadleaf evergreen that usually grows 6 to 8 feet tall. The holly leaves develop a darker color that contrasts nicely against the bright red berries. It is perfect for north-facing borders, screens, hedges, and for foundation plantings. Easy to grow and impervious to mountain wildlife.

Indian Hawthorn – This easy-to-grow evergreen produces vast clusters of fragrant, pearl-pink flowers. Perfect for planting along driveways and parking medians where reflected heat is an issue for many other plants. This spring-blooming evergreen loves Arizona heat!

Mugho Pine – With its dense, symmetrical growth and compact, rounded form, this dwarf pine is perfect for confined spaces. Stunning green foliage takes on a golden hue during colder months. Its slow habit makes this evergreen an ideal specimen in smaller gardens or massed to make a bold statement in more significant landscapes.

Oregon Grape Holly – This is the perfect mountain evergreen, often mistaken for holly. Solar yellow flowers cover the entire plant in spring, followed by a summer berry that is attractive and edible. Heading into winter, the leaves turn a mixed cranberry and orange color that remains until spring blooms. This plant loves sun, heat, wind and requires less water than many natives.

Red Cluster Berry Cotoneaster – With white flowers in spring evolving to red berries that remain on the plant through winter, this plant is a welcome food source for feathered friends hanging around after welcoming in the new year. Growing 10 feet tall and wide, it loves the sun and is easy to grow.

Spreading Yew – This plant has rich green needles that border on black. The 4- to 6- foot spread is used as a hedge, screen or border in a shaded or dapple sunspace. Scarlet berries show off against all the wintergreen and are highly attractive to birds. QCBN

By Ken Lain

Ken Lain can be found at Watters Garden Center throughout the week, 1815 Iron Springs Road in Prescott, or contacted through his websites at WattersGardenCenter.com or Top10Shrubs.com.