On My List: Evergreen Shrubs

Cutting evergreen branches from my own yard this weekend, I paused and thanked my past self for the decisions that made that possible. My first garden-related impulse and action upon taking possession of this little barren rectangle of land almost three years ago was fueled by thoughts of winter, if not specifically of decorative branches. As things stood, we looked out our windows at the street and at neighboring houses, and I want to look out windows and see greenness — especially in winter. I wanted not just green outside certain windows, I wanted something that would stand there and catch the snow when it came, and look pretty doing it. And I wanted it to get started growing right away. 

At all the garden centers, there were these fairly large but comparatively affordable shrubs called Green Giant (Thuja aka arborvitae) that I knew nothing about (being new here) but green and giant sounded good to me! And they just look like fairly generic evergreen trees. So I bought two, about as tall as me, and got them strategically planted, along with a small dogwood in the front-side yard. The only existing plants here were a little collection of boxwoods (and barberries, which I removed) lined up against the front of the house. And while I might not have chosen boxwoods, I’ve appreciated their evergreenness, even though they aren’t visible from inside the house.

Once I decided I wanted the bare rectangle of grass in the backyard to become a tiny forest over time, I knew it would need a strong backbone of evergreen conifers, and as much as I would love to plant a white pine (or a blue spruce), they’re wildly impractical for our tiny lot, not to mention slow-growing and expensive. But by the next season, there were more — and smaller — varieties of Thujas in the nurseries, among other things. Knowing I may come to regret the first two,* I still put another Giant in the back corner, to eventually anchor the hedgerow, along with various other smaller Thujas and Junipers (Hetz columnar and Taylor, so far). And I may or may not be done with the conifers. But what I’m specifically wanting to add next year are shrubby, non-conifer evergreens.

I didn’t originally realize there were non-conifer, non-deciduous options up here. There aren’t many, and some of the few options get too big and/or want more moisture than I can promise (I’m looking at you, Rhododendron), so I think I’m down to just one addition to my plant wish list from this category:

1) Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)
Seeing the mountain laurel grove at Manitoga cemented its place on my wish list, and I think I can work in a few plants. In particular, I have a silky dogwood along the fence out back that might be happier if moved to a spot near where our sump pump drains. That would give me an opportunity to put a mountain laurel where I currently have the silky dogwood, with a couple more in the vicinity of the future courtyard. 

Bonus: Mountain laurel will make another great source for cut branches to bring into the house, both with and without its flowers.

*I like to half-joke that in about 5 years I’m going to start a company called Green Giant Slayer. Our only service will be taking down all the Giants (including mine) that have been planted in spots they’re too big for.