When choosing evergreen shrubs for the front of your house, there are several things to keep in mind. You’ll need to know what kind of zone you live in, as certain kinds of shrubs can only thrive in certain zones. They also have varying growth rates. The most popular evergreens for the front of the house are the Chinese snowball viburnum, Ogon spiria, and Red tip photinia. If you want to create a classic or contemporary look, evergreens are an excellent choice.
Ogon Spirea
If you’re looking for a colorful, drought-tolerant evergreen shrub for your front yard, consider the Ogon Spirea. This spirea offers three seasons of spectacular color, with large, pure white flower buds appearing in the spring. During summer, its foliage turns yellow and turns to a golden orange in autumn. Its flowers open in the late spring and create a stunning contrast with the foliage.
Ogon spiria is a drought-resistant plant that can grow in full sun or partial shade. It has dense, leathery needles and is a great choice for a dry climate. A drought-resistant shrub, Ogon spiria requires very little water, making it a great choice for front-of-house landscaping. Ogon spiria grows up to four feet tall and thrives in zones 6 and above.
Ogon spiria, or baby’s breath spirea, is a multi-stemmed deciduous shrub that offers three-season interest. In the spring, the leaves are narrow and lance-shaped. In the late summer and fall, they turn yellow, which contrasts with the dark green foliage of other shrubs. In addition to its bright color, Ogon spiria also has distinctive bronze tones that provide a lovely contrast against the barren landscape.
Ogon spiria is a good choice for front-yard plantings because of its fine-textured foliage. They complement hostas and bigleaf hydrangeas well. They also look great in clusters, and the flowers are mostly flat. Ogon spiria is a good choice if you’re looking for a flower-y contrast. Its delicate, flat clusters of flowers can be a beautiful contrast for other flower shapes, like astilbe or salvia.
Black spruce
If you want to add a little spruce to your landscape, consider black spruce. It is slow growing but will live for 50 years under the right conditions. Little Giant, on the other hand, is an evergreen shrub from the family Arborvitae. It grows naturally into a medium-sized ball, but it can grow to a height of about 15 feet. Its foliage is soft and feathery, and its branches resemble those of a small tree.
It’s native to boreal forests and taiga regions, but it is a fantastic choice for the front of the house. This species is one of the main hosts of eastern dwarf mistletoe, a beetle that can be quite a pest to many trees. If you want to make your front yard a little more unique, try planting Nana, which has received a Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit. It’s a dwarf variety and will form a hassock-shaped mound only two to three feet high.
Black spruce is good for wildlife, too. Snowshoe hares love to feed on the seedlings of the spruce. Their high population can seriously damage a Black spruce tree. The cones are also the food source of Red squirrels, which gather them in large numbers and create an odd-looking tree top. The Bog Elfin butterfly also lives on Black spruce, giving the spruce a special place in the butterfly kingdom.
Bamboo is another great low-growing shrub for the front of the house. It grows to three feet and has soft-textured leaves. It also produces yellow flowers in winter. These shrubs are well-suited to climates from USDA zones seven to nine. You can even plant two or three of these shrubs in the front of the house. In addition to its low-growing habit, this species tolerates dry conditions.
Chinese snowball Viburnum
Known for its gorgeous flowers, Chinese snowball viburnum is native to mainland China and can grow to 15 feet tall and 12 feet wide. These semi-evergreen shrubs produce a spectacular show during spring and summer. They are a great choice for the front of the house because of their graceful stature and soaring branches. Although they’re not very fragrant, they do have beautiful hydrangea-like blooms.
This heirloom plant grows into a large shrub, and once established, is fairly drought-tolerant. However, it needs consistent watering. If you’re worried about dieback, consider pruning the Chinese snowball viburnum hard in late winter. Hard pruning will result in a more compact shrub, and you should consider this option at least once every few years. After hard pruning, it will be a show-stopper in your front yard.
Before planting, prepare the planting area and dig a hole two or three times the size of the viburnum’s root ball. Plant the viburnum shrub at a depth of ten feet. It is important to water it thoroughly for the first few months to acclimate to the soil conditions in your yard. Viburnums grow best in rich, organic soil that is well-drained and consistently moist. Plants planted in a sunny spot will grow much larger than they did in their nursery pots.
After planting your Chinese snowball viburnum, it is recommended that you prune it every year after it blooms. Cutting back the stems will reduce the flower buds for the next year. The Chinese snowball viburnum is a large shrub and should be planted in a large garden. If it’s large enough to grow, it will reach ten feet tall in five or six years. Gardeners in Mississippi have discovered that it commands attention while in bloom.
Red tip photinia
To add a colorful and striking accent to your house, plant a red tip photinia in the front yard. This evergreen shrub has striking red new leaves in spring and year-round evergreen foliage. This plant does best in USDA plant hardiness zones 8 and 9, but it can also be pruned to achieve a more elegant appearance. To get the most benefit from your new plant, start by planting it in the fall or early spring.
This rose-like plant produces small clusters of bright red flowers in spring and produces berries-like fruits that are bright red when in bloom. It grows up to ten feet tall and five to eight feet wide and gets larger with age. This plant needs rich, well-drained soil and full or partial shade. Red tip photinia should have good air circulation. Make sure you water regularly to avoid root rot.
If you choose to plant your red tip photinia in the front yard, be sure to plant it in a well-draining, sunny location. You can also propagate it by stem cuttings. Be sure to follow the instructions on the label on the stem. Then, you can transplant it. If the stems are sturdy enough, you can plant them in the front yard.
While red tip photinia is very hardy and disease-resistant, it does require good care. It is easy to grow, but should be kept in a well-drained, slightly acidic environment. It should also have a high light and air circulation. This plant can tolerate full sun to partial shade and can handle heavy soil. If the soil is not well-drained, amend it with sand before planting.
Green Mountain Boxwood
When selecting Evergreen shrubs for the front of your home, consider a plant that can grow to a height of 6 feet, such as a Green Mountain Boxwood. This boxwood is a flowering evergreen with beautiful, greenish-cream flowers. While it is poisonous to pets, it will keep deer at bay and emits a slight odor after pruning.
This evergreen shrub grows fast compared to other boxwood varieties, reaching five feet and two to three feet wide. It is a great choice for landscapes because of its upright pyramidal shape and dense, vibrant foliage. As a bonus, this plant can live in USDA Hardiness Zones four through nine, so it will survive even the harshest climates. The foliage is small, but dense.
This shrub has a pyramidal form and is a cross between Korean and English species. Because of its Korean parentage, it is very cold resistant. It will not require burlap to protect it from the elements, but you may need to trim the branches to shape them. It will turn bronze-colored in late fall. If you’re looking for a plant to decorate the front of your home, consider a Green Mountain Boxwood.
Other Evergreen shrubs for the front of your home include Emerald Gaiety, which has a small, rounded shape and fragrant flowers. This tree will grow a modest height, but it will spread and grow over the initial planting area. It is a beautiful, inexpensive shrub. You can purchase it at a local nursery or through online retailers. A ‘Rainbow’ cultivar is another good option.
