With the earlier-than-usual appearance of daffodils here in Maryland, I’m pausing to appreciate the evergreens that help me get through winter, year after year with almost no effort on the part of this gardener. They may be low on floral thrills or the changing colors of deciduous woodies, but they make my winter garden, which is rarely covered in snow, still look like a garden to me.
That’s especially true of the entryway to my front door. On the left are some ‘Winter Gem’ Boxwoods (Buxus microphylla). Two ‘Goshiki’ Osmanthus frame the door. ‘Burgundy Wine’ Nandinas and ‘Ice Dance’ Carex are on the right. There’s also lots of groundcover Comfrey, which is semi-evergreen here in Zone 7. A close-up of one of the ‘Oshiki’ Osmanthus. This is the most-commented-on evergreen I grow, and can you see why? It just looks gorgeous every day of the year. It’s easily pruned to any shape or size I want (in this case, keeping it off the sidewalk). Also, despite its holly-like appearance, its leaves are soft(ish) to the touch.
My go-to vine is the very evergreen Crossvine (Bignonia capreolata), seen here gradually creating screening around my front yard.
Here in the back yard, it took about 5 years to completely cover the screen. In May it’ll be covered in orange trumpet-shaped blooms.Golden Groundsel (Packera aurea) is in the foreground and Autumn Fern at the rear.
Mondo grass is a truly steppable groundcover that spreads extremely slowly but this patch is finally thick and I love the look and the feel of it. Here it’s seen with my go-to groundcover for sun – Sedum takeseminese.
Here’s more of the same Sedum as edging in a sunny-enough spot along the path and under some Amsonia hubrichtii.
Here’s a Chinese Juniper ‘Sea Green’ that I bought in 2006 and grew in a pot on my front porch for 5 years. I then moved and because it was in a container and didn’t “convey” to the buyers, I brought it with me and planted it here in the ground.
In this throwback photo from my former garden, you can see that young Juniper and its twin on my front porch, with Boxwoods also providing winter color.
I ditched one of the Junipers after they overgrew the small space I could give them here. Still, I’m just sentimental enough about plants to love having even just one hold-over from a garden I tended for 26 years.
I’ve come to love this single ‘Emerald Green’ Arborvitae serving as an accent. It was once part of a whole Arborvitae hedge and I hated it!
Above, my ‘Picturata’ Acuba is already overshadowed by some early daffodils, but it brightened up a bank of dark green groundcovers all winter.
Still more evergreens in my tiny townhouse garden are 7 azaleas, which to my eyes are boring without flowers but still, they have leaves in winter!
With my appreciation for evergreens duly noted, it’s almost spring and I’m ready to rejoice in the crazy exuberance of FLOWERS.
Looking for Natives?
Sorry to report that of the 12 evergreens mentioned here, just 2 are native to the Mid-Atlantic region – Crossvine and Golden Groundsel. (They’re among these 16 regionally native plants I’m currently growing in my tiny garden.) I like native Junipers but they’re too large for small gardens like mine. Who knows – breeders may have already created some small nativars to suit locations like mine. Hope so.
Of course if you expand your definition of “native” to “anywhere in the U.S.” your options would include the great variety of conifers native to the Pacific Northwest. That definition may make no sense ecologically but some seem to find comfort in it.
A few thoughts. I too left my garden of 30+ years so I feel your pain. Fortunately I still have access to it so I routinely liberate a few of my treasures to incorporate into my new garden. Since I live in the Evergreen State and am surrounded by both coniferous and broadleaf evergreens I have found it necessary to create some contrast in the garden with deciduous plant material. Too much of anything just gets boring. I am jealous of your Bignonia however. It’s not a vine we can grow around here probably because of the lack of heat, but there are several others that, while lacking those wonderful tropical looking flowers, are also evergreen and work well for screens. BTW, the beads on the trellis are a fun and whimsical touch. I too have a Goshiki that I have maintained in a neat globe form across from a row of Ilex crenata convexa at the base of our front deck. We affectionately refer to them as our “green meatballs”. You touched on the subject of ‘natives’ which always gets me worked up. It really is a hot button for some gardeners who seem to have this insane idea that we should only have natives in our gardens. I like to think of them as the ‘white supremacists’ of the horticultural world or simply ‘plant racists’ who have exclusionary views on plants in our landscapes. Of course, the whole concept of what is native is just like you mentioned, native to North America or just your state, and might we also add in the variable of pre or post glacial. The floral communities of our plant have always been on the move and will continue to do so as our climate changes, regardless of the cause. Thanks for your informative article. Steve
Thank you for the tour.
Beautiful yard!
I enjoyed the plant transitioning from your previous garden.
Knowing we have a number of plants from my parents garden and friends gardens brings a lot of happiness and fond memories.
A lot of our garden is in containers. (I just like collecting containers. Then I need to do something nice with them.)
They could travel with me if I ever moved again. (Not happening. Couldn’t imagine laying another large patio at my age. Hmm, or moving some of the larger containers!)
I make sure to plant a lot of native things for pollinators. I’m aware of the keystone species for our area and grow many of them.
https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/About/Resources/native-keystone-plants.
Excellent resource!
When i add something new i try to make it a native. Or at least a close cultivar of the original.
But I’m not giving up acuba, aspidistra, encore azaleas, camellias, carex, crepe myrtles, crocus, daffodils, dogwoods (Kousa and hybrids), fatsia, 10 different Asian evergreen ferns, hydrangeas, figs, gardenias, hellebores, dwarf iris, liriope, lorepetalum, ophiopogon, purple oxalis, poets laurel, assorted pond plants, rhodea, old fashioned own roots floribunda roses, sedums, sempervivum, windmill palms, etc. (Some of the offending plants in our yard I can think of off the top of my head.)
Feel free to remind the *natives only* crowd that to maintain their ‘purity’, Cultivars are also unacceptable.
Even our Magnus coneflower and dwarf purple coneflower don’t pass the ‘purity’ test.
Native means regional. Not the mountains, not the PNW, not the Northeast.
If it’s not native to your county, then it’s not ‘native’.
And they are just another happy gardener, just like the rest of us.
Sorry for the rant. That subject gets on my nerves.
Already personally heard the cultivar ‘purity’ test and the natives only ‘purity’ test, but the same people will give stuff from around the rest of North America a pass.
Plants that dont grow well here. Plants that hate out summer heat and humidity.
On a brighter note, the crocus are in full bloom. The hyacinths and daffodils have started. The beautiful tulip magnolias and the fruit trees are beginning to bloom. (they are not going to be happy in a week. Last frost is usually around March 15th.)
Hope you are having a wonderful garden day.
Please do not make comments that belittle gardeners for having ideas/values you do not share.
I had to move to an apartment complex that had a walk-in shower before hip replacement surgery about 5 years ago. I have not seen a squirrel, rabbit, bee, butterfly, songbird, and certainly no nesting ones. Why? The builders clearcut all vegetation and did not replant habitat. The issue for me is not natives vs nonnatives per se but host plants for butterflies and plants that produce enough caterpillars for the 96% of baby landbirds which require them. These are native plants. The loss of biodiversity on our planet is real and we are the cause killing pollinators with insecticides, fragmenting what little habitat is left thereby destroying gene pools, on and on. Please plant for wildlife and not for beauty. I would give anyting to see even a spider spinning a web while sitting on my screen porch.
You’re more than welcome to visit my garden north of Seattle, which is overrun with squirrels, rabbits, bees, butterflies and songbirds. I’m not quite sure why my property became so popular with them, given that I built my garden for beauty rather than for wildlife.
Packera! It’s a wonderful little thing. I have P. anonyma growing freely in the meadow behind my house. I’ve also started seed for P. aurea, but nothing’s happening so far. I’ve read that it’s slow.
Deer and rabbits don’t touch it, and the bees love the yellow blooms. Nice little evergreen that should be utilized more.