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Evergreen shrubs for structure

Evergreen shrubs that give a bed its bones: its shape in winter, and the backdrop for everything else in summer.

A designer talks about a garden's bones: the shapes that are there all year, when the flowers have gone. In a bed, the bones are evergreen shrubs. The planner plants them first, singly and off-centre, and arranges everything else around them.

Repeat one or two evergreens down a long bed rather than using one of everything: it is repetition that makes a bed look designed in winter. Rounded ones look restful, upright ones are exclamation marks; a few of each is enough.

128 plants: 128 shrubs.

The dozen to start with

  • Japanese pieris

    Japanese pieris

    8 ft · late March to late April

    An elegant evergreen with drooping chains of white or pink, lily-of-the-valley bells in early spring, and new leaves that open bronze or bright red.

  • Japanese camellia

    Japanese camellia

    10 ft · early February to early April

    Polished, dark evergreen leaves and large, formal flowers in red, pink or white from late winter into spring.

  • Oleander

    Oleander

    10 ft · mid June to early October

    A large evergreen with narrow, leathery leaves and clusters of pink, red or white flowers from early summer to autumn.

  • Mountain laurel

    Mountain laurel

    8 ft · late May to late June

    A native evergreen with crimped, sugar-icing buds that open into cup-shaped flowers of white, pink or red in late spring, in clusters that cover the plant.

A bed planned only from these plants

The planner was given only the plants on this page that suit zone 6 and full sun, and designed this 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed from them when the page was made.

A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed at eye level in late June: Winter heath, Yucca 'Color Guard', Winter heath 'Kramer's Red', Bearberry, Boxwood 'Green Gem', Heather.
A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) formal bed in zone 6, full sun, seen from the path in late June.
2. Yucca 'Color Guard'24. Bearberry44. Bearberry44. Bearberry44. Bearberry44. Bearberry44. Bearberry44. Bearberry44. Bearberry43. Winter heath 'Kramer's Red'33. Winter heath 'Kramer's Red'33. Winter heath 'Kramer's Red'33. Winter heath 'Kramer's Red'33. Winter heath 'Kramer's Red'33. Winter heath 'Kramer's Red'35. Boxwood 'Green Gem'55. Boxwood 'Green Gem'55. Boxwood 'Green Gem'56. Heather66. Heather66. Heather66. Heather66. Heather66. Heather66. Heather66. Heather66. Heather66. Heather61. Winter heath11. Winter heath11. Winter heath11. Winter heath11. Winter heath11. Winter heath1
From above, to scale. Each circle is one plant, as wide as the room it needs.

The plants

  1. 1 Winter heath × 6, pink
  2. 2 Yucca 'Color Guard' × 1, white
  3. 3 Winter heath 'Kramer's Red' × 6, pink
  4. 4 Bearberry × 8, pink
  5. 5 Boxwood 'Green Gem' × 3, dark green leaves
  6. 6 Heather × 10, purple

Planned as a formal bed: 34 of the 34 plants (100%) are mirrored across the middle of the bed: each stands on the middle line or has a twin of its own kind opposite it. Pink is the colour seen most, on 3 of the 5 kinds grown for their flowers. Among the neighbours here are two pairs of recognised partners, such as heather and winter heath.

The planner's own design check: 9 Excellent, 7 Good. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.

Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.

All 128 plants

Show all 128, by where they go in a bed

Front of a bed 23

Middle of a bed 25

Back of a bed 80

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