The Most Eye-catching Evergreens For The Garden. Photo

Table of contents:

The Most Eye-catching Evergreens For The Garden. Photo
The Most Eye-catching Evergreens For The Garden. Photo
Anonim

Evergreens, despite their inferior range of flowering crops, cannot be called boring. A variety of cultures that do not lose their attractiveness both in summer and in winter are able to satisfy all tastes. Along with the usual green crowns, original variegated and flowering plants can boast of winter-green foliage. And it is absolutely impossible to remain indifferent to miniature shrubs and trees of dwarf varieties, as well as to the most bizarre in shape beauties.

Juniper in a flower garden
Juniper in a flower garden

Irreplaceable talents of evergreen stars

Plants with winter green foliage are always perceived as special. They are beautiful in any season, any time of the year. Stable attractiveness, immutability allows you to experiment with herbaceous plants and seasonal accents, as if "leaning" on an evergreen base. But the purely aesthetic characteristics of such cultures are always inferior to practical ones.

Evergreen accents are the most important skeletal crops. They are responsible for the attractiveness of the garden throughout the year, even in winter. Skeletal planting is the basis of landscaping, the basis on which all decorative objects are based. When everything "temporary" - luxurious flowering, colorful leaf fall, incomparable summer parade - is over, the quality of the garden design can be judged by the main parameter: is there enough winter-green crops in it so that it is not boring in the garden even in the coldest season …

Accordingly to the main function, you need to use evergreens in the design of the garden. Considering them not as accents, but as a base, the basis of design, those unchanging elements that will be present in landscaping for many years, "pillars" for creating decorative groups, flower beds, flower beds. Evergreens are placed both individually and in whole groups, combining with each other, used in hedges and groups of trees and shrubs. They are superbly combined with each other, combined, enhances the meaning and functions of each other. For example, you can easily mix holly and mahonia, cypress, rhododendrons, cherry laurel in a composition that will look luxurious in the active season, as if appealing to the legendary southern motives, and decorate gardens in winter.

Japanese pieris (Pieris japonica)
Japanese pieris (Pieris japonica)

Note: the assessment of the garden according to the parameter of correct landscaping is carried out in winter, when all the main plants shed their foliage and even persistent perennials go into a dormant stage. Bare crowns, empty flower beds should not make the garden boring. If it seems empty and lifeless to you, then you should introduce more evergreens into the design.

Constant doesn't mean boring

Evergreens, due to their stability, are often mistaken for the most boring category of garden plants. But winter-green beauties are able to surprise not only with the crown that remains for the winter, but also with an inimitable variety. The range of such plants is by no means limited to conifers, and among the latter there are non-standard varieties and inimitable originals. Plants with unusual appearance for evergreen crops are by no means uncommon. Not only balls and figures of yew and boxwood, hedges of laurel and cypress, boring ordinary spruces, holly, fir, junipers, pines and euonymus are limited to their assortment. In some you will be able to observe unexpectedly powerful flowering, in others - to enjoy the catchy needles or leaves, and still others will surprise you with the compact size and picturesque beauty of the "mini" format.

The range of evergreens allows everyone to find the right solution for almost any artistic challenge. Diversity concerns not only aesthetic qualities, but also height, size, growth rate. For small gardens, excellent alternatives can be found that, even at a considerable age, will not take up much area.

Prickly sucker (Elaeagnus pungens)
Prickly sucker (Elaeagnus pungens)

Let's get to know the most original and unusual of the evergreen beauties.

Wintergreen favorites with beautiful flowers or variegated leaves

The most beautiful and darker shades of green are usually found in evergreens. But only luxurious greens are not at all limited to colors, and in spring or summer one wants so much that luxurious crowns also join the general bloom parade. The problem with dull green will be solved by beautifully flowering species that hide for several weeks under a lush veil of inflorescences, as if they explode with bright flashes.

The most famous beautifully flowering evergreen shrub is the rhododendron. It is the most striking, lush and elite garden shrub that prefers shading and predominantly acidic, nutritious soils. The only exception is the rhododendrons of the Inkarho group (inkarho-rhododendrons), which tolerate alkali well. Today, hardy hybrids are especially valued, and the choice is made not by species, but by varieties, the assortment of which covers the most varied shades and sizes.

Mahonia bealei
Mahonia bealei
Mahonia media
Mahonia media
Holly barberry (Berberis aquifolium), or Mahonia aquifolium
Holly barberry (Berberis aquifolium), or Mahonia aquifolium
Photinia fraseri
Photinia fraseri
Photinia davidiana
Photinia davidiana
Kalina David (Viburnum davidii)
Kalina David (Viburnum davidii)

But the range of evergreens from the flowering group is not limited only to the most eminent shrubs. Also noteworthy:

  • beautiful evergreen Viburnum David (Viburnum davidii) - one of the best versions of this classic decorative bushes;
  • Broad-leaved Kalmia (Kalmia latifolia), known by the nickname mountain laurel, produces numerous wide bells with a touching color in June;
  • Japanese skimmia (Skimmia japonica), appreciated not only for the spectacular umbrellas of the inflorescences, but also for the beauty of red berries and in regions with severe winters, combining garden and indoor "career";
  • Gaultheria pointed or pointed (Gaultheria mucronata, sometimes distributed here under the old name Pernettya mucronata) is one of the most spectacular ornamental berry plants;
  • Hybrid Photinia Fraser (Photinia fraseri), with its gathered in panicles of white small flowers, formerly known as Stranveziya (Stranvaesia) Photinia David (Photinia davidiana);
  • blooming spring yellow flashes Magonia (e.g., Mahonia aquifolium (Mahonia aquifolium), which should be called barberry holm (Berberis aquifolium), hybrid Mahonia average (Mahonia media), Mahonia Beal (Mahonia bealei) and so forth.
Gaultheria mucronata
Gaultheria mucronata
Japanese skimmia (Skimmia japonica)
Japanese skimmia (Skimmia japonica)
Broad-leaved Kalmia (Kalmia latifolia)
Broad-leaved Kalmia (Kalmia latifolia)

If flowering shrubs require more care, variegated plants give the same explosion of colors, without making the seasonal work schedule difficult. Almost any coniferous species has its own variegated varieties - from spruce to juniper, and other winter-green plants. For example, the variegated variety "Maculata" Loch prickly (Elaeagnus pungens) gives the whole bush an amazing elegance, curly, lacy crown seems unusual and as if glowing from the inside.

Deserves much more recognition and a real chameleon - Japanese Pieris (Pieris japonica) with colorful young shoots. Red twigs of the unique "Mountain Fire" variety or multi-colored, replacing red with salmon and then light green shoots of the "Forest Flame" variety, variegated "Variegata" variety - there are plenty to choose from.

The best evergreens with unusual leaves or needles

Columnar spiers, pyramidal thujas or outstretched junipers are unlikely to surprise anyone. But among evergreens there are special forms and exotic versions of needles or leaves. Wintergreen status does not mean that there are no fancy varieties and varieties.

Sciadopitys verticillata
Sciadopitys verticillata
Japanese cryptomeria (Cryptomeria japonica)
Japanese cryptomeria (Cryptomeria japonica)
Small-flowered pine "Schoon's Bonsai" (Pinus parviflora)
Small-flowered pine "Schoon's Bonsai" (Pinus parviflora)

One of the most original rarities in our gardens is the Chilean Araucaria (Araucaria araucana). Its conical crown seems to be studded with triangular needles, and upon closer examination, the bizarre structure of the needles seems more and more unusual. At a young age, araucaria are not too adapted for harsh winters, they need shelter, but the older they get, the better they tolerate the conditions of the middle zone.

Fancy bushes of the unique yellow Yew berry (Taxus baccata), a rare variety "Dovastonii Aurea", look more like outstretched wings, with twigs-feathers. Combining an outlandish color with unusual drooping shoots, it seems alive and ready to move, looks great as an original accent. Drooping and sometimes drooping shoots, decorated with original needles, are also characteristic of the Blue Snake variety of the Himalayan Cedar (Cedrus deodara) and the Pendula variety of the Veitch Fir (Abies veitchii).

It looks like matted curls, gray, with a blue tint of needles from a more familiar plant - Small-flowered Pine (Pinus parviflora) of the Schoon's Bonsai variety. This is a very decorative and, moreover, a medium-sized plant up to 2 m high, in which the crown always retains its density even at the bottom of the bushes.

Fir Veitch "Pendula" (Abies veitchii)
Fir Veitch "Pendula" (Abies veitchii)
Yew berry "Dovastonii Aurea" (Taxus baccata)
Yew berry "Dovastonii Aurea" (Taxus baccata)
Chilean araucaria (Araucaria araucana)
Chilean araucaria (Araucaria araucana)

Original needles - a distinctive feature of Cryptomeria Japanese «Cristata» (Cryptomeria japonica) varieties. This is a large coniferous tree up to 10 m high, individual “needles” of which reach a length of 10-12 cm, are curved at the base and fancifully flattened on the sides, which makes them look like a cock's comb.

More like a dill needles sciadopitys whorled (Sciadopitys verticillata), often referred to thujopsis whorled or Fir Japanese umbrella. Capricious, tall, growing only on damp, super-nutritious and also acidic soil, the beauty, although it requires increased attention, turns into the main star of design.

Mini accents to which you cannot remain indifferent all year round

Evergreens do not always have to be large in order to play a role in compositions. And in the design of places such as rock gardens, narrow ridges, ribbon flower beds, small front gardens, you do not use ordinary thuja or fir. Even for the most modest in size garden ensembles there are stars - dwarf varieties and types of familiar evergreen crops that seem especially spectacular. Shrubs and small trees of the mini format attract attention by the perfection of their forms, the density of the crown, and catchy colors. They are the most luxurious accents in existence.

Blue spruce "Conica" (Picea glauca)
Blue spruce "Conica" (Picea glauca)
Laurel officinale (Prunus laurocerasus)
Laurel officinale (Prunus laurocerasus)
Oriental flatfish "Aurea Nana" (Platycladus orientalis) or Eastern Thuja (Thuja orientalis)
Oriental flatfish "Aurea Nana" (Platycladus orientalis) or Eastern Thuja (Thuja orientalis)
Dull cypress "Nana Gracilis" (Chamaecyparis obtusa)
Dull cypress "Nana Gracilis" (Chamaecyparis obtusa)
Mountain pine, or European dwarf pine (Pinus mugo)
Mountain pine, or European dwarf pine (Pinus mugo)
Pine black "Nana" (Pinus nigra)
Pine black "Nana" (Pinus nigra)

Blooming winter-green bushes also have their own mini-stars. Different varieties of Rhododendron repens (Rhododendron repens), today ranked among the forms of Rhododendron Forrest (Rhododendron forrestii), barely visible under the wonderful buds. Laurocerasus (Prunus laurocerasus) also has its own dwarf variety - a compact, 30-centimeter "Mount Vernon", in which the diameter of the bush is 2.5 times the height.

But still, the main stars among miniature evergreens are conifers. The best decorative mini-varieties can be safely ranked dwarf spruces, pines and Co.

  1. A curvy beauty that will forever make you forget about boring ordinary spruces, a compact favorite is the Blue Spruce of the Conica variety (Picea glauca). Even in old age, this beauty will not exceed 3 meters in height, it will perfectly fit with its dense conical crown even into a flower bed of minimal size.
  2. Not exceeding 2-2.5 m slow- growing stupid cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) variety "Nana Gracilis".
  3. The most famous of the dwarf pines is the "Pug" variety of Mountain Pines or European dwarf pines (Pinus mugo), which grows so slowly that it reaches its maximum meter height only after decades.
  4. The main candidate for decorating flower beds is the black pine (Pinus nigra) of the "Nana" variety, which is limited to 3 meters and has an amazing compactness of the crown.
  5. Dwarf favorite among tui - sort of «Aurea Nana» Tui East (Thuja orientalis, according to recent studies correctly called Biota or platycladus east (Platycladus orientalis), which is limited meter height similar to the dense fur needles with a bright yellow color of lights on the solar markets, wins. and texture, and unusual density.

Recommended: