by Glory Lennon

Created on: September 11, 2008

An Evergreen is technically any plant, shrub or tree which retains its leaves throughout the growing season. With this definition we can see that all plants in the tropics and some in temperate regions, where it is virtually year-round growing season are also technically evergreen. Plants such as Palms, Live Oaks and Cycads never lose their leaves in one fell swoop as deciduous trees do in autumn. However, we shall not be talking about those. The Evergreens we will be discussing come in two forms Conifers and Broad-leaf, both of which dominate northern climates but also do well in warmer climes.

The Evergreen Conifers is a supremely vast collection of plants which include the Pine, Spruce, Fir, Redwood, Yew, Cedar, Cypress and Juniper. What makes them Conifers is the cones in the case of Pines, fleshy berries in the case of Yews, or scaley capsules such as in Junipers, in which their seeds are encased. Most but not all Conifers are evergreen and most are tree forms though there are some shrubs and some which can go either way meaning they are big enough to be called trees but more in the usual shape of a shrub.

These Evergreen Conifers can range drastically in size. Some can scrape the sky, the Coast Redwood (Sequoia Sempervirens) being the tallest and Blue Rug Juniper (Juniperus Horizontalis) at the extreme other end acting more or less as a soil hugging ground cover barely 6 inches high. Evergreens come in virtually every shape imaginable as well. Some growing tall and columnar like the 40-60 foot tall American Arborvitae (Thuga Occidentalis), the typical "Christmas Tree" shape of the Balsam Fir (Abies Balsamea), drooping, open branching of Deodar Cedar (Cedrus Deodara) and the funky, contorted free-form style of the Japanese Black Pine, a usual favorite for bonsai. Needless to say there is a conifer for every taste, every application, every gardener and every landscape.

As for growing habits they all vary but there are some general requirements for their healthy up-keeping. They love acidic soil and provide their own means of ensuring their environment stays acidic by periodically shedding some of their needles. These needles fall to the ground and as they decompose they acidify the soil. This is why there are large tracts of evergreen trees such as the Black Hills of South Dakota where little else will grow. They ensure the forest for themselves by making it less hospitable for deciduous trees and encroaching groundcover who require a less acidic place to

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