Donning a visually appealing front yard landscape takes more than just putting different flowers or plants together. The appropriate selection of the best plants to include also plays a significant role in making your front yard look like it’s taken straight from the glossy pages of a magazine.
Evergreen shrubs are one of the top choices as a foundation plant for most front yards. It is easy to assume that evergreen is, in fact, most landscape architect’s first choice. Well, we couldn’t really argue with them. Evergreen has lot of potentials, and they come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and heights. Thus, there is always a plant that will cater to your liking.
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Planting evergreen shrubs in your front yard makes it more appealing.
Hence, we have done our research and listed a few steps to guide in your selection. We also include top 10 evergreen shrubs that will look good in any landscape theme you have in mind.
How To Choose The Best Evergreen Shrubs For Front Of House
While almost all evergreens can be used to beautify your front yard lawn or garden, not all evergreens can survive in similar climate or location. Thus, it is important to know these steps before finally deciding on which evergreens to include in your landscape.
1. Planting Location
As mentioned earlier, the location where you plant the evergreen shrubs is one thing to be considered. Although evergreen plants can survive the harsh rays of the sun, it doesn’t mean they particularly like to be exposed. To keep your evergreen healthy and in great condition, putting them in place wherein they are slightly sheltered from direct sunlight will help them maintain their lush, green color. If your house faces north, then planting evergreen shrubs in the front yard is highly recommended. Evergreens grow easily when planted in the northern spot as most homeowners have observed.
You should plan ahead where to plant your evergreen shrubs.
2. Growth Qualities
Not all evergreens grow the same. Some grow easily while some need extra effort to develop into a fully-grown plant. While evergreen plants are known to have lush leaves all throughout the year, not all have the same healthy and vivid green leaves. Some of the fast-growing, best evergreen shrubs for front of house include hydrangea, common elder, buddleja, privet, ribes, photinia, and much more. On the other hand, slow-growing evergreen shrubs include Dwarf coral hedge barberry, Japanese aucuba, and Dark Beauty Heather.
Low-growing shrubs are perfect for front yards.
3. Attributes
Do you want to have an evergreen that bear flowers? Perhaps you want one with berries and lush foliage? These are just some of the questions asked when attributes of evergreen shrubs are discussed. Moreover, the size and shape of the leaves are also a top considerations by most homeowners and landscape architects. Others prefer to have narrow leaves while some like round leaves. However, the selection of attributes also depends on the theme of your front yard.
The best evergreen shrubs for front of house are those low-growing plants. This is because tall shrubs will hide the your front yard, which defeats the purpose of showing off your scenic landscape. You can also opt to have flower-bearing shrubs like the Japanese Snowball Viburnum or Snowball Hydrangea. These shrubs are low-growing but have white flowers that will add to the appeal of your front yard. In fact, evergreen viburnum shrubs are ideal for winter garden.
Japanese Snowball Viburnum has white, round flowers.
5 Best Evergreen Shrubs For Front Of House
Now that you know the three features to look for when choosing the best evergreen shrubs for your front yard landscape, you have to decide which evergreen shrubs are best suited to your preferences. We have listed top five best evergreen shrubs for front yard to help you out in the selection process.
1. Buxus
Buxus or commonly called “Box” is a compact evergreen shrub that are popular in most Mediterranean style landscape. It is a versatile evergreen shrub that can be used in almost all parts of the house, may it be for front yard, backyard, or outdoor garden at the side. A lot of gardeners love to cultivate and till these shrubs and utilize it as a border for their vegetable garden. While some gardeners like to do some woodwork to border their garden, other love to incorporate Buxus shrub instead. This shrub is also ideal if your front yard is mostly exposed to the sun or when no taller trees that can provide shade. If sunlight exposure is unavoidable, always check if the soil is properly moist and can last the whole day without the plant feeling scorched.
Buxus shrub is one of the most popular evergreen shrubs.
2. Aucuba
There are a lot of aucuba varieties; one of which is the Japanese Aucuba. Aucuba shrubs are very popular for locations or places in which sunlight is often intolerable. This type of shrub is known as the toughest evergreen shrubs. Unlike other evergreen shrubs that need partial shade from sunlight and moist soil, aucuba shrubs can survive long exposure to dry soil and harsh sunlight. Furthermore, they also grow just fine in containers; thus, you can plant them in a pot and display in your outdoor patio.
3. Spurge Laurel
Spurge Laurel, also known as Daphne laureola, is a flower-bearing evergreen shrub that is native to Britain. It is a slow-growing and shade-tolerant shrubs, which usually last for quite a long time. Its flowers are yellowish green in color which usually blooms in late winter or early spring. In addition to flowers, Spurge Laurel also bear black berries which occur in late summer. Spurge Laurel shrubs usually grow about 2-5 feet tall.
Spurge Laurel shrub is native to Britain with yellowish green flowers.
4. Photinia
Photinia is another well-known evergreen shrub. It is a popular choice because of its bright red leaves when the plant is still young. The color will gradually change to bronze green as it matures. The young red leaves provide contrast to the usual green foliage, making it eye catching and one of the homeowners top favorites.
5. Evergreen Holly
Holly beautiful shrubs that bear vivid red flowers. Its species range from deciduous and evergreen. Moreover, it is among the few evergreen shrubs that can be planted in about 50 states, which means climate and soil sensitivity are something it can tolerate.
Holly berries bear flowers and bright red berries.
Final Thoughts
Most people can identify evergreen shrubs at first glance. However, not many are able to identify its attributes and specific needs. Although evergreen shrubs are known for its year-long green foliage, knowing the best evergreen shrubs for front of house can be useful information, especially if you want to take landscape design seriously.
Hopefully, this article has helped you choose the best evergreen shrubs for your front yard. Remember, the best plant to incorporate are those that can accentuate the beauty of your front yard landscape.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think about planting evergreen shrubs by commenting below!
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