Evergreen Shrubs for Shade

Today we're going to talk to you about evergreen shrubs that grow in shady conditions. Some people get a little frustrated with shady areas because it can be a little difficult to find plants that will grow there, but there actually is a wide selection and there's even a wide selection of evergreen plants as well. The first one I wanted to point out was this Japanese Akuba here. This one is very typical of some of the cultivars, some of them referred to as gold dust plants, and this is an excellent plant for shady, even heavy shaded areas. Some of them are, you know, some plants that we'll talk about are going to require a little bit of dappled light or semi-shade, but this one will actually grow even in heavy shaded areas. And there are many other cultivars that are now available with different patterns of white and gold patterns on them. And we have another cultivar of the Akuba here in this bed as well, and it's called Picturata. It has larger splotches of gold and cream colors on the leaves. Another plant that I really like is one of the Barberries. Now many of the Barberries can be deciduous or even semi-evergreen. This one is a true evergreen plant. It's called William Penn Barberry. It has nice glossy dark green leaves throughout the summer, can actually turn a little of a purplish color in the fall during the winter months when it's a little bit cooler, and in the springtime it's often covered with tiny bright yellow flowers. The Hollies, of course, are a good old favorite and very popular still throughout the country, and there's a wide variety of cultivars that are available. Several species that are American, Japanese, and Chinese species, and within each of those species there's literally hundreds of cultivars that are available. Some of them actually get quite large and some of them are very compact and very small. These are also male and female plants, so the females will, many of them will produce colorful berries late in the year and into the winter months. Another wonderful plant that can be evergreen, sometimes semi-evergreen depending on our winters, is the abelia and the glossy abelia. This is an excellent plant. It blooms with these spring white or pink flowers starting in spring and will bloom pretty much sporadically throughout the whole season, and they're excellent for attracting butterflies and hummingbirds to the garden as well. Very fragrant plants. Another one we have is the Yetta Hawthorn, also the genus is Raffiolipis, and it's one of those southern shrubs that we're kind of pushing up this, you know, up into Oklahoma. Marginally hardy this far north, but we do have some here in the gardens that have actually done quite well the past several years, but it's also a nice evergreen, dark green leaf color, have spring flowers of white to pinky color, and then just generally nice, compact, well-formed shrubs the rest of the growing season. This boxwood we have here in the gardens is a wonderful variegated cultivar. It's been here for many years. It's well-behaved, kind of a slower grower, and it has just been an awesome plant. It provides lots of color year-round, even during the winter months, and of course the variegated leaves really stand out nicely in the shade. Now another plant that we have here in the shade garden is this Autolichen Laurel, and it's going to get only about three to four feet tall and probably a little bit whiter. It'll have white, panicles of white flowers on it in the springtime, may turn a little bit of reddish color in the winter, but mostly just stays a nice dark green year-round. Another one is this Japanese Pyrrhus. This can also get, depending on the cultivar, can get to be a good-sized shrub, three to four feet tall and wide, and it will have panicles of white spring flowers as well, and there are several different cultivars there. Some of them will have kind of a reddish new foliage, and then it turns a nice dark green throughout the summer, and then another one that I really like, and it's somewhat underutilized in this area, is the Oregon Grape Pollies, or the Mahonias, and there are several Mahonia species that are available on the market. One of the more common ones in the south is the Leatherleaf Mahonia. It's a much taller, very coarse textured plant, but this one is a wonderful glossy green flowering plant. This one can also get about three feet tall. Now, this is probably a compactiform, so it stays lower growing. The species can actually get six, seven, eight feet tall, but this one stays relatively smaller, and it has kind of like holly-type leaves, and it'll bloom bright yellow flowers in the springtime, early spring, followed by clusters of blue grape-like fruits on it. There's also a wonderful creeping form, a creeping Mahonia, so it only gets not much more than a foot tall and spreads, and these all will turn typically a beautiful bronzy or burgundy-red color as the cooler temperatures come in, and they stay nice and red throughout the winter months.