Evergreen shrubs and trees provide structure, screening and four-season interest for our foundation borders—a backbone, so to speak. But what happens when said backbone gets bent out of shape?
Increasingly, deer just love a buffet of evergreen favorites like camellia, yews, azalea and rhododendrons. Other go-to’s like privet, leatherleaf mahonia and nandina have become invasive in some locations. Our native hemlocks and redbays and the non-native garden-staple boxwoods are threatened with widespread pests and disease, further limiting their use.
Where does all this leave us as we’re planning gardens? In the face of such stressors—along with a changing climate—it’s important to expand our repertoire and consider alternatives already here. A good handful of native evergreen shrubs from northern and southeastern North America, some of them old favorites and some lesser known, are proving increasingly useful well outside their natural ranges. They’re more than up to the task of keeping the evergreen backbone straight and looking its best.
JUNIPERS
For full sun conditions in nearly any soil, junipers (Juniperus) are a prime ingredient for mixed screening. The wide-ranging, confusingly named eastern red cedar (J. virginiana; USDA Zones 4–9), once a common choice for hedgerows and windbreaks, now offers very refined selections. These cultivars recommend red cedar for garden space again, making great wildlife-supporting replacements for arborvitae (Thuja), especially where deer are bothersome.
‘Taylor’ red cedar is notable for its cypresslike columnar form, reaching up to 30 feet tall and just 3 to 4 feet wide. The moderately sized 15- to 25-foot-tall and 5- to 6-foot-wide ‘Brodie’ and Emerald Sentinal ('Corcorcor'), with copious blue “juniper berry” cones, provide a winterlong feast for birds. For striking silver-blue colored foliage, J. v. x‘Grey Owl’, a shaggy two- to four-foot-tall, four- to six-foot-wide splaying shrub, makes for a great mid-border showpiece, lending cooling color where needed. It adds lots of blue juniper berries in winter, too.
For the front of the border ,the squat J. horizontalis 'Youngstown' is an attractive selection of a variable groundcovering species. Hardy from Zones 3 through 9, it adapts well to areas much warmer than its mostly Canadian and northern US range. ‘Youngstown’ is a feathery, spreading but upright male selection that stays full to the base and compact—only about one to two feet tall and three to six feet wide at maturity. As a plus, its green-blue foliage blushes purple-bronze during winter.
‘Lime Glow’, a sport, keeps the feathery clumping form of ‘Youngstown’ but in a shocking electric-gold to lemon-lime color. The foliage does not scorch, and it switches to rust-bronze tones in winter. These two complement each other well when planted together.
AMERICAN HOLLY
Like junipers, our classic American holly (Ilex opaca; Zones 5–9) boasts a widespread natural range. With relatively few issues, a slow to moderate growth rate and an adaptable culture for acidic soils, many tried-and-true cultivars, such as ‘Satyr Hill’, serve well for large-scale screening. However, these often grow too large for other sorts of uses, as they can reach over 20 feet tall and just as wide.
Ilex × attenuata ‘Nasa’ solves this problem! Derived from a natural hybrid of I. opaca and the Southeast native dahoon (I. cassine) found where the species’ ranges overlap, ‘Nasa’ (Zones 6–9), hardy in Zones 6 through 9, is a smaller native holly tree. It reaches just 8 to 12 feet tall and about half as wide, making it relatively narrow. It grows in a tight pyramidal shape with spineless willowy foliage and bears small red berries for wildlife, too. It’s perfect for the corner of the house. Adaptable to most acidic soils in sun to part shade, it can replace privet, taller boxwoods and even deer-damaged hollies like ‘Nelly Stevens’.
To fill horizontal space at the middle or front of the border, I. opaca ‘Maryland Dwarf’ (Zones 5–9), also known as ‘Maryland Spreader’, is a unique groundcover-type holly. This slowly spreading and mounding female holly grows as if steamrolled, creating an unusual thick carpet of holly foliage and small red winter berries. Its mature proportions measure just one to three feet tall but six to ten feet wide. Massed for a low formal hedge or lawn replacement or planted to cascade down a tricky slope, it’s sure to make people talk.
DOGHOBBLE
For shadier borders, southeastern doghobble (Leucothoe) is a great replacement for invasive nandina, mahonia, disease-prone cherry-laurel and deer-candy azaleas. Represented in the trade by two species, L. axillaris (Zones 6–8) and L. fontanesiana (Zones 5–8), these semi-weeping, multistemmed shrubs reach two to four feet tall and two to six feet wide—perfect for covering the bare ankles of lankier shrubs. They need well-draining but moist acidic soil and a sheltered location.
Leucothoes feature dark green foliage with red- to copper-colored new growth and pendulous white bell-shaped flowers for pollinators in spring. With enough sun and the onset of cooler weather, foliage tends to blush ruby red to rich wine purple.
Common cultivars include hybrid ‘Scarletta’ (Zeblid), ‘Rejoyce’ and ‘Rainbow’, an antique marble-variegated variety. For drier Western locations, L. davisiae, the sierra laurel (Zones 5a–8b), is a rare alternative worth seeking.
In warmer humid Zones 7a through 9b, the Florida doghobble (Agarista populifolia) is another effective evergreen screening alternative. (It could be tried in Zone 6 with protection.)
It has the same preferences, shiny foliage and late-spring flowers as leucothoe. However, it grows larger, forming a 6 to 12-foot-tall shrub or small tree, recommending it for informal screening and erosion control. It can also be shorn to any height desired. 'Tyler's Treasure', an open-pollinated dwarf selection, naturally stays closer in size to the leucothoes mentioned above.
ANDROMEDA
Not to be outdone by its distant Leucothoe cousin, the genus Pieris offers another deer-resistant, four-season option for sun or part shade in P. x ‘Brouwer’s Beauty’ (Zones 5–8). A hybrid, it solves the problems of both its parents: the fussy but pest-resistant East Coast mountain andromeda (P. floribunda) and the easier-going but pest-prone Japanese andromeda (P. japonica).
A slow- to moderate-growing spreading shrub four to eight feet tall and wide, 'Brouwer's Beauty' forms a profusion of rather showy red-purple flower buds on the tips of its branches during the winter. These explode like small fireworks in early spring, opening white flowers splayed stiffly horizontal, like those of its American parent. Small, slightly lanceolate olive-yellow new foliage matures to a shiny medium green. This shrub enjoys sheltered locations with sun to part shade in moist but very well-draining soil, and it can be planted rather high. It’s perfect for the corners of foundation plantings or for adding more delicate evergreen mass toward the back of the border.
FLORIDA ANISE
Licorice- to camphor-scented waxy foliage faintly perfumes the nearby air on humid days. Spidery flowers bloom from white to ruby red. These are the hallmarks for North America’s hardy evergreen anise shrubs, Illicium parviflorum and I. floridanum.
A true transplant from the Southeast, they prefer a sheltered location away from winter winds and afternoon sun. Like rhododendrons, they droop severely in cold weather. But they’re more cold tolerant than they may appear, and, depending on variety, they’re hardy from Zones 6 or 7 to 10. These plants should be tried more in the colder range, because their foliage is poisonous, making them one of the few truly deer-proof evergreens of their size for shade.
The straight species and robust named varieties like I. f. ‘Pebblebrook’ or ‘Miss Scarlett’, which offer denser foliage and showier ruby flowers, can reach heights of five to ten feet and widths of three to eight feet. They’re a perfect larger screening option in part to deep shade and moist locations, where comparable shrubs like cherry laurel might fail.
Two newer hybrid introductions from Dr. Tom Ranney, the dwarfs ‘Orion’ and ‘Scorpio’, top out at just half the typical size. Much better suited for most foundation borders, these bloom heavily in spring with showy white (‘Orion’) or red (‘Scorpio’) spidery flowers, with sporadic rebloom until fall.
Illicium parviflorum ‘Florida Sunshine’ grabs the most attention of the group. It’s a beacon in shade with its bright chartreuse to gold leaves and red stems on a sprawling, mounding habit four to eight feet tall and wide. It prefers extra shelter from winter winds and afternoon sun to reduce foliage bleaching. ‘BananAppeal’® echoes the same chartreuse sunshine vibes in a tidier three- to four-foot size. Both cultivars deserve a chance at illuminating the darkest corners of the garden.
Nothing could entirely replace our old landscaping favorites, or deny their strengths. But as their weaknesses become more apparent, these varied, tough native transplants can help redefine our garden spaces in the years to come.
Photo credits (top to bottom): Eastern red cedar, Public Domain; 'Youngstown' juniper by F. D. Richards/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED; American holly by Edward Ricemeyer/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED; Leucothoe axillaris by KENPEI - KENPEI's photo, CC BY-SA 3.0; 'ReJoyce' leucothoe courtesy of Plants Nouveau; Florida doghobble by El Funcionario - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0; Brouwer's Beauty andromeda by Plant Image Library/CC BY-SA 2.0; 'Orion' Florida anise courtesy of Gardener's Confidence Collection; 'Scorpio' Florida anise courtesy of Star Roses and Plants
