Top 10 Evergreens For Style & Structure – Guest Blog By Clare Foggett

Clare Foggett, Editor, The English Garden

Clare Foggett is currently Editor of The English Garden, an inspirational monthly magazine that invites readers to admire some of the nation’s most beautiful classical and contemporary gardens through captivating stories and stunning photography.  Available in both the UK and the USA, the magazine is a trusted source of inspiration on how to both design and maintain the perfect garden.

With 15 years’ experience in gardening magazines, Clare started her career as a trainee horticultural journalist at the Royal Horticultural Society’s members’ magazine ‘The Garden’.  She has edited Garden News, Britain’s best-selling gardening magazine and written for Garden Answers, Landscape and Yours magazines, as well as broadcasting weekly on Northern Ireland radio station Downtown.

Clare is a keen gardener and trained in horticulture at Pershore College.  She has a passion for plants and beautiful gardens and is a former Chairman of the Garden Media Guild.

When we plan borders and think about planting, the first thing most of us do is come up with a long list of all the gorgeous flowers we’d like to include.  It’s hard not to – flowers and colour are the reason most of us garden, after all.  But, once that list of roses and perennials is drawn up, take a moment to consider adding some evergreens to the mix, for these are the plants that bring the whole picture together with style.

A sea of perennials is very pretty, but without some structure to anchor the picture, the eye tends to drift and lose interest.  That’s why, if you look at the planting schemes of top designers such as Tom Stuart-Smith, you’ll often find evergreens dotted through the perennials: dumpling-shaped mounds of box or yew, tall spires of upright yew, Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’ or cylindrical pillars of beech (not an evergreen, admittedly, but because it clings onto its copper-coloured leaves over winter, it serves a similar structural function).

Add an evergreen element and schemes are instantly elevated, from one-note to symphonic masterpiece.

Incorporating evergreens isn’t just about achieving a stylish, designer look.  In the depths of winter when herbaceous perennials have retreated below ground and leaves fallen from the trees, evergreens provide welcome structure and stolid greenery, often looking all the more attractive for a coating of frost or a light dusting of snow.  They can also be used to create excellent backdrops, whether that’s for more ephemeral planting, or to help a piece of sculpture stand out against a screen of verdant green.

A bushy evergreen shrub offers shelter for wildlife – they’re often favourite nesting sites for birds – and many put on seasonal displays of flowers or berries, so they’re not just boring green.

Here are ten English garden favourites:

1 Yew (Taxus baccata)

Thanks to its amenability to being clipped, yew is one of the most versatile evergreens you can grow.  Craft it into structural balls or mounds to nestle in amongst herbaceous planting, or trim it into striking pillars or pyramids to rise above a border and frame the view.

2 Portuguese laurel (Prunus lusitanica)

This dark green-leaved laurel, with purplish-red stems, is altogether more refined than the ubiqitous glossy cherry laurel.  It also tolerates being clipped and can often be found as lollipops or parasols.  White flowers are followed by strings of black berries.

3 Holly (Ilex aquifolium)

With their super-shiny leaves, although they are usually dark green, hollies somehow bounce light around so they don’t become a ‘black hole’ in a planting scheme.  The appeal for many is their glistening red berries, but you need both male and female varieties close by for a guaranteed crop, unless you choose one of the self-fertile varieties, such as ‘J.C. van Tol’, which will produce bright red berries by itself.  This variety also has almost spineless leaves, so is handy – and far less painful – to have around for Christmas decorations.

4 Oleaster (Elaeagnus x ebbingei)

Often used as an evergreen hedging plant, but also an excellent candidate for the back of a border, where its silvery green leaves tone well with pastel-coloured perennials.  It’s fast growing and as tough as old boots, and is also happy being clipped into shapes.  Its tiny white flowers in the autumn are scented.

5 Pittosporum

There are lots of pittosporum to choose from, but bear in mind that in the coldest parts of the UK they may not make it through a harsh winter.  ‘Tom Thumb’ has glossy mahogany leaves, but its new growth is a contrasting bright apple green.  ‘Irene Paterson’ has elegant, grey green leaves edged with white.  Get a box ball look without the worry of box blight by using naturally spherical Pittosporum ‘Golf Ball’.

6 Sweet box (Sarcococca confusa)

A must for during the winter, when tiny, tufted flowers produce a powerful spicy fragrance that belies their size.  Glossy green leaves furnish the garden throughout the rest of the year, and it’s a particularly good choice for shady spots.

7 Bay (Laurus nobilis)

Perhaps because it’s such a well-known herb, bay tends to be overlooked as an ornamental shrub in its own right.  Bay lollipops and pyramids in pots are popular, but it will also thrive as a freestanding shrub, its aromatic leaves an added bonus.

8 Barberry (Berberis species)

Viciously spiny, berberis are a superb choice for burglar-proofing boundaries.  There are deciduous and evergreen kinds, so seek out evergreen species such as Berberis wilsoniae, whose arching branches are strung first with pale yellow flowers in spring, followed by translucent pink berries in autumn.

9 Mexican orange blossom (Choisya ternata)

Glossy leaves and gorgeous, scented late spring blossom make this evergreen a popular shrub.  Beware the yellow-leaved version (‘Sundance’) which can sometimes just look sickly.  Instead, if you want to ring the changes, look for ‘Aztec Pearl’ which has elegant, slender leaves.

10 Laurustinus (Viburnum tinus)

Excellent for informal hedges and screening, and always a reliable, easy-to-grow choice, Viburnum tinus has dark, glossy leaves and white and pink flowers during winter and spring, which are followed by blue-black berries.

Feeling inspired?

We have an extensive range of traditional and contemporary planters that are perfect for most evergreens.

Available in a range of colours, our planters are frost proof and each have drainage holes as standard.

Our friendly and knowledgeable team is more than happy to assist you in choosing the right planters for whatever display you would like to achieve.

Call: 01604 770 711

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