Best evergreens to grow
Evergreen flowering plants are the best of both worlds. Many gardeners look for plants with beautiful flowers, while many look for specimens with lush foliage. Both are important: Great floral displays add eye-catching color to your yard in spring and summer, while lush greenery can save your landscape from feast-or-feast syndrome year-round.
Of course, you can grow different plants to meet these dual needs. But in smaller yards, doing it that way will run you out of space. It would be best to satisfy as many of these requirements as possible in a single plant.
To meet the need of evergreen flowering plants, evergreen shrubs of broad leaf types perform many tasks well. But it is also good for other options, especially when a problem area of the yard requires a ground cover, or when there is an empty space in a flower bed that can really use a perennial with both beautiful flowers and green leaves.
Indoor plants Tips 👇
Rhododendrons
Rhododendron flowers can come in many colors, including lavender, white, pink, and red hues.
Their evergreen leaves are as valuable as the flowers and can be very large. 'Cynthia', a cultivar of the Catawba rhododendron shrub, is 6 inches long. Cynthia (zones 5 to 8) grows 8 to 15 feet tall and wide and bears rose-pink flowers. Grow in full sun to partial shade.
Azalea bushes
The genus Rhododendron includes not only its namesake shrubs but also azaleas. Only a few of the latter are evergreen. A wonderful example of an evergreen azalea is the Stewartstonian.
What makes Rhododendron x Gable 'Stewartstonian' so special is that it offers beauty in three seasons of the year: red flowers in spring, red foliage in fall, and lush foliage in the winter months.
The plant is 4 to 5 feet tall, with a similar spread. Grow in zones 5 to 8.
Mountain laurel
Lush foliage can provide wonderful visual interest even when not attached to its plant. Craft enthusiasts appreciate the time they harvest evergreen boughs (whether broadleaf or needle) to make wreaths, kissing balls, swags, Christmas wreaths, and other outdoor Christmas decorations. The broad-leaved evergreen leaves of Kalmia latifolia (zones 4 to 9) are especially prized for use in wreaths.
The flowers are equally wonderful. They appear in large clusters in late spring. Unusually shaped buds are darker in color than open flowers (they are often white or pale pink) and attract more interest.
Mountain laurel shrub (5 to 12 feet tall x 5 to 6 feet wide) does well in full sun to partial shade.
Home Garden Ideas 👇
Andromeda
Pieris japonica is an early spring flowering shrub. Its fresh leaves are orange-bronze. Cultivars have been developed with bright red new leaves; They usually have "fire," "red," or the like in their names, including:
'Red Mill'
'Mountain Fire'
'Redhead'
Even in winter, Pieris japonica provides:
The red flower buds turn into hanging clusters of white flowers before they open
Green leaves
Grow it in zones 5 to 7 in partial shade. It is 6 to 8 feet tall with a similar spread.
Winter heath
darleyensis 'Mediterranean Pink' (hardy to zone 6, full sun, 1-ft tall x 2-ft wide), small evergreen shrubs that produce pink "flowers" for months. The trick here is that those flowers are actually made up of long-lived sepals rather than short-lived petals. But when you notice their beauty in winter, when nothing else blooms, you won't mind being "cheated".
"Heath" is not only a species (Erica), but also a family. Erica, rhododendron, kalmia, and pears all belong to this large family of evergreen flowering plants. But compared to the other three, Erica's leaves are more needle-like. Family Heath prefers acidic soil.
Daphne
Daphne x burkwoodii 'Carol Mackie' (3 feet tall x 4 feet wide) is only technically semi-evergreen in the northern part of its range (zones 4 through 8). The flowers are highly fragrant, white to light pink, tubular, and borne in clusters. Grow this shrub in part sun to part shade.
House plants Tips 👇
Chinese border flower
Loropetalum chinense 'Pipa's Red' (5 feet tall x 6 feet wide) is a good choice for an evergreen flowering plant where winters are not too severe, as it is listed in zones 7 through 9 (full sun). Its flowers are hot pink, but it is best known for its burgundy-colored, lush leaves and curved branches.
Creeping Myrtle
Vinca minor is a blue-flowered vine. But it is highly prized as a shade ground cover, where its broad-leaved, evergreen foliage is always beautiful. Before planting, check for native invasiveness. Creeping myrtle (zones 4 through 8) is 3 to 6 inches tall, with a spread of 18 inches.
Creeping Phlox
Like creeping myrtle, Phlox subulata is an evergreen flowering ground cover. But the former vine can be grown in shade, while the latter needs full sun. These zone-3 to 9 plants have small, needle-like leaves. But this groundcover (6 inches tall x 2 feet wide) is grown more for its excellent flower color and number of blooms, which is why it's more popular than the related but simpler phlox stolonifera. Flowers can be pink, red, rose, white, blue, purple, lavender, or bicolor.
Candytuft
Technically a companion shrub, most gardeners consider Iberis sempervirens 'Purity' (10 inches tall x 12 inches wide) as a perennial. The flowers are white with a lavender tinge. Prune it to prevent new green leaves from coming through, as these are better than old leaves. Grow candytuft in full to part sun in zones 4 to 8.
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