The 4-foot arborvitae shrubs in front of my house were planted almost 40 years ago when the house was built. For the 18 years that they’ve been mine, I’ve dutifully trimmed back the bright flush of spring growth each year to keep them from growing too wide and tall and looking unsightly.
This year, I realized that not only are they very tired looking shrubs, they are boring. I wanted to brighten up the landscape in front of the house and make it more interesting. Many hours of thought and visualization later, after considering and rejecting numerous ideas, I realized that the area definitely needed something evergreen so that it would look nice in winter too.
At my sister-in-law’s house, I saw and fell in love with ‘Green Velvet’ boxwood. I didn’t even know what it was at first. I only knew boxwood as a sharply-edged rigid green hedge that is commonly used to mark the boundaries of formal gardens. In contrast, ‘Green Velvet’ grows in a lovely mounded shape and has the most beautiful soft looking oval leaves. And something else I didn’t know about boxwood – it is evergreen!
But the mounded shape of ‘Green Velvet’ wouldn’t be right for my front yard. I needed something that would grow in a more upright form. Some internet research turned up ‘Green Mountain’ boxwood. I purchased four of them and they have replaced the old arborvitae shrubs in the front of the house.
‘Green Mountain’ has crisp green leaves, in an elongated oval shape. Very pretty, and perfect for where I planted it, but I really loved those ‘Green Velvet’ leaves. So the next week, out went some scraggly mugho pines in the backyard and in went two ‘Green Velvet’ boxwoods.
I began to wonder what else could replace the typical needled evergreens in landscapes and found that there are many broadleaved evergreen shrubs. Unfortunately, I also discovered that the majority of evergreen shrubs grow in USDA Hardiness Zone 6 and higher. But I did find a few for our Zone 4/5 area here.
Some of them are mountain laurel, wintercreeper euonymous, Labrador tea, daphne ‘Burkwoodi’, euonymous ‘Emerald ‘n’Gold’, and some hollies and rhododendrons.
There are also some plants that we don’t usually think of as shrubs that hold their leaves all winter and provide substance to the winter landscape. These include lavender, yucca ‘Adam’s Needle’, some artemesias, periwinkle, common sage and rue ‘Jackman’s Blue’.
Some of the plants listed above don’t have green-colored foliage, but are still considered evergreen since they hold their leaves. Lavender, artemesia, sage and rue’s leaves are silvery or dusty green. The ‘Emerald ‘n’ Gold’ euonymous has green leaves with bright golden margins. In winter the leaf edges turn a pretty pinkish burgundy color.
These plants all have different growing requirements, so before you buy, do some research to make sure that the spot you have in mind for them has the right amount of sunlight or shade, and the proper soil moisture and pH.
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