Evergreens are green all year round.
-
Australian / Tasmanian Blackwood Seed
Acacia melanoxylonPrice range: £6.00 through £17.00 inc. VATAustralian Blackwood is also know as Sally Wattle. A fast growing evergreen, it has dark green pinnate leaves and in spring bears clusters of small milky white flowers. It is best suited to mild temperate climates and is not particularly frost hardy below minus 5 degrees centigrade. It produces a fine grained, hard wood. Grow in a sheltered spot backed by a wall. In warmer climates can be quite invasive.
-
Bay Laurel / Sweet Bay
Laurus nobilis£5.00 inc. VATThe leaves are the bay leaves used in cooking but it also makes an excellent hedge and is tolerant of maritime areas. Bay Laurel can produce excellent specimen trees and is also used for topiary.
-
Berberis wilsoniae Seed
Berberis wilsoniaePrice range: £5.00 through £10.00 inc. VATBerberis wilsonae, Barberry is a splendid small semi-evergreen shrub with sea green leaves and coral coloured clustered fruits after yellow flowers in May. This species has no cultivars and is mostly grown from seed. Good for low prickly hedging.
pic courtesy of Agnieszka Kwiecień, Nova, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
-
Bog Gum Seed
Eucalyptus kitsoniana£10.00 inc. VATEucalyptus kitsoniana
Good ornamental specimen for its broad glossy leaves and varied bark that sheds in ribbons. mallee form. Found inland and on coastal plains, and flats near water.Often grown for floristry.
-
Box / Common Box Seed
Buxus sempervirens£6.00 inc. VATBox will eventually grow into a small tree, but more normally a dense medium sized shrub. It produces masses of small, dark, evergreen leaves. Ideal for topiary and hedging purposes in the formal garden since it clips well, late summer.
-
Cherry Laurel / Common Laurel Seed
Prunus laurocerasusPrice range: £5.00 through £11.00 inc. VATCherry Laurel is vigorous wide spreading evergreen shrub with dark shiny green leaves, often used for screening. It produces attractive erect clusters of white flowers in spring that give rise to small cherry like fruits that eventually turn black. Insects visit the flowers and birds eventually eat the berries. Clip in the summer, for hedging, and the best finish is by using secateurs!
-
Chinese Barberry Seed
Berberis julianaePrice range: £5.00 through £10.00 inc. VATChinese Barberry is a excellent densely growing, evergreen, spiny-leaved bush. The leaves are copper tinted when young. The scented yellow flowers are borne in bunches of up to 15. It makes a good hedging plant and security barrier.
-
Cider Gum Seed
Eucalyptus gunniiPrice range: £7.00 through £46.00 inc. VATEucalyptus or Cider Gum the best known and hardiest Eucalyptus in cultivation. Its evergreen juvenile leaves are rounded and an outstanding silver blue, much used in floristry. As they mature the leaves become sickle shaped. It can be allowed to develop into a specimen tree, pruned to bush size or coppiced. After pruning, the foliage will grow as juvenile again. Very fast growing. Unlike many Eucalypts, the bark tends to be smooth, not flakey. Flowers are creamy white, on and off through the season. Scented oils are released from crushed or burning leaves and are used as an antiseptic and to treat respiratory problems.
-
Common / English Yew Seed
Taxus baccata£5.00 inc. VATYew is a small to medium sized tree with fruits that are a bright red aril, which contrasts superbly with the dark green foliage. The fruit is eaten by birds but is poisonous to people. Yew is tolerant of most soils and is often found on chalk formations in the wild. Very ancient ones are found in Churchyards all over the country – it was once held in great esteem by Druids and mystics.
-
Common Ivy Seed
Hedera helix£3.50 inc. VATCommon Ivy is adaptable and makes an excellent ground cover plant as well as being a good climber. Its evergreen leaves offer all year round green cover, and as such is used as a shelter and nesting site for small birds and insects. The scented spherical flower-heads offer a good source of nectar/pollen for late autumn flying insects and the blue-black berries are eaten through the late autumn and early winter by birds.
-
Cordyline Seed
Cordyline australisPrice range: £5.00 through £8.00 inc. VATCordylines or New Zealand Cabbage trees grow into small evergreen trees with a single trunk topped with a dense mass of long sword like leaves. Small creamy white flowers in large terminal panicles are produced in early summer. A very striking architectural plant.
-
Evergreen / Holm Oak Seed
Quercus ilexPrice range: £6.00 through £15.00 inc. VATThe Holm Oak is a large evergreen tree with an attractive corrugated bark. The leaves are a dark glossy green not unlike holly but vary in shape and size. It can become deciduous in the very coldest areas but is an excellent tree for coastal areas.
Not for forestry purposes.
-
Firethorn Seed
Pyracantha coccinea£5.00 inc. VATFirethorn or Pyracantha is a large evergreen shrub that is valued for its outstanding display of red autumn berries. These are produced from the white flowers that appear in spring. Its dark green leaves are augmented by sharp thorns which when used as a boundary plant provide an effective security barrier.
-
Franchet’s Cotoneaster Seed
Cotoneaster franchetii£7.00 inc. VATFranchet’s Cotoneaster is a popular semi-evergreen shrub that is graceful and medium sized with sage green foliage. The white flowers blushed with pink give rise to ovoid scarlet-orange fruits. Soft relaxed growth can be pruned in to shape.
-
Golden Mimosa Seed
Acacia baileyanaPrice range: £6.00 through £26.00 inc. VATGolden Acacia or Cootamundra Wattle is a small evergreen tree/large shrub with silver grey ferny leaves and short spikes of pompom flowers between Dec and March. Lots of Pollen is produced so the tree is good for early insects. In fact it is planted for honey production commercially as well as for floristry. However, in warmer countries it tends to escape and be a bit of a plague in the wild. In the UK, it definitely needs to be in a conservatory or very sheltered sunny corner. Quite tolerant of drought.
-
Gorse Seed
Ulex europaeusPrice range: £5.00 through £10.00 inc. VATGorse is a dense fiercely spiny shrub. In mild areas the yellow, pea-like flowers, smelling of coconut, are produced throughout the year but more usually they flower from March through to May. Brilliant for insects. The shrubs thrive on, and prefer, very poor light or stony soils. They can act as good pioneers, nursing other less tough plants until they’re big enough to survive. No maintenance necessary, but can be pruned quite hard (using armoured gloves!)
-
Himalyan cotoneaster seed
Cotoneaster simonsiiPrice range: £5.00 through £15.00 inc. VATCotoneaster simonsii is a large upright semi-evergreen with small white/pink flowers in June, bee friendly, followed by persistent red berries. Good as an informal hedge but can also be clipped quite hard into shape. Often known as Himalayan Cotoneaster, but this leads to confusion with other Cotoneasters.
-
Holly Seed
Ilex aquifolium£6.00 inc. VATAn evergreen shrub or tree that can be very long lived with leaves that are ovoid, shiny and generally spiky. In winter, bright red holly berries contrast beautifully with the dark green foliage. There are some varieties with yellow berries, and some with non-spikey leaves. Usually a male and a female tree are required to produce berries on the female. Very useful for hedging, it grows quite fast to begin with but slows down as it ages. It can be clipped into shape(carefully!)
-
Killarney Strawberry Tree
Arbutus unedoPrice range: £5.00 through £11.00 inc. VATThe Strawberry Tree is a small evergreen tree or bushy shrub, with deep brown bark which peels off in shreds. Its red fruits and white flowers are produced simultaneously in the autumn. Lime tolerant and hardy, this little tree can withstand gales and the most inhospitable coastal conditions.
-
Laurustinus Seed
Viburnum tinus£5.00 inc. VATAn extremely popular evergreen, medium sized shrub with masses of glossy green leaves. The white-pink budded flowers are borne from late autumn to early spring. The egg shaped fruits are initially metallic blue but ripen to black. It makes an attractive hedge.
-
Lavender “Hidcote” Seed
Lavandula angustifolia "Hidcote"Price range: £6.00 through £30.00 inc. VATLavender ‘Hidcote’ is a compact lavender growing to just over 0.5m with grey green leaves and stems. It is the classic ‘Old English Lavender’ used in cottage gardens. The highly scented violet flowers are borne in dense spikes in mid summer. Great for bees. After flowering, a light trim over with shears keeps the shrubs neat.
-
Lawson Cypress Seed
Chamaecyparis lawsonianaPrice range: £5.00 through £20.00 inc. VATA large conical tree which is a useful ornamental and makes an excellent evergreen hedge or screen even in exposed situations. Looks like Leylandii, but is slightly slower growing.
-
Leatherleaf Viburnum Seed
Viburnum rhytidophyllum£5.00 inc. VATViburnum rhytidophyllum is a large handsome evergreen shrub with large elliptic corrugated and wrinkled leaves which are dark green above and grey felted beneath. The cream or pink flowers are borne in clusters in spring. The fruits are red, turning black and shiny as they ripen. A superb foliage plant especially on chalk soils. Maintenance-free, but a little light trimming can be done after flowering has finished, if the shrub is getting too big.
-
Lemon Scented Gum Seed
Corymbia/Eucalyptus citriodoraPrice range: £5.00 through £19.00 inc. VATLemon Scented gum or Eucalyptus is grown as a shrub for its lemon scented, evergreen leaves, but in northern climes it is not hardy out of doors and is best used as a conservatory plant. In warm climates it is often planted outdoors. Can be coppiced successfully.
Sign up to receive great news and offers