Evergreen shrubs for scented flowers.
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Larry Smith and the Riverside Gardens team talk all things pots, plants and pruning in their weekly gardening column.
Walking through the garden centre, it is nice to see the evergreen trees starting to lose their wintered appearance as it disappears underneath a flush of new spring growth. After months of selling predominantly deciduous trees while they were dormant, it is refreshing to be advising customers of their options on evergreen trees.
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Evergreen trees will still shed their leaves as they grow but just not all at once like deciduous trees, and they will continue to grow and photosynthesise over the winter months. But because of the diminished daylight hours, it will be at a much slower rate.
Being evergreen does not necessarily mean they will be a cleaner option either, with some evergreen tree varieties dropping leaves throughout the whole year, whereas deciduous trees will drop them all at once. But evergreen trees certainly have some benefits over deciduous trees and play an important part in garden design. Evergreen trees can offer shade and shelter all year-round, act as windbreaks or screening and bring privacy to the garden.
Most suburban gardens can easily accommodate small to medium-sized trees and a few larger gardens can handle big trees. With such a wide selection to choose from, be sure to give it the careful consideration it deserves.
Agonis flexuosa is a lovely weeping native tree that works well in most styles of gardens. Available in a range of varieties that vary from small to medium trees, they can be useful as feature trees, adding a soft cascading willow effect to the garden
A close-up of an Agonis flamingo leaf, the slender, elongated leaves gently curve, with hints of red veins running through the vibrant colours.
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‘Agonis flexuosa burgandy’ grows to about four to six metres high by three metres wide with dark burgundy new growth over dark green foliage. ‘Agonis flexuosa flamingo’ reaches about the same size but with yellow-green variegated foliage and pink-flushed new growth, making a striking feature in the garden.
‘Agonis lemon lime’ grows a bit smaller to about three to four metres with lime green new growth, and straight ‘Agonis flexuosa’ is the largest grower, reaching eight metres or more with dark green foliage.
The Agonis has a natural weeping habit which is probably where they derive the common name of willow myrtle. They are a very hardy tree with tiny white flowers along the top of their foliage.
‘Corymbia ficifolia’ is another medium-sized native tree known for its masses of flowers that can almost completely cover the leaves in late summer or early autumn. These flowering gums have a bushy crown on clear upright trunks and are naturally found in south-western Australia. When grown from seed they will vary in height and colour, but most commonly they are red and six to eight metres high.
To guarantee size and colour you need to look for grafted plants. This is a more recent innovation that has really added scope to their use in the home garden. Varieties like Baby Scarlet or Baby Orange are dwarf growers to three metres high and ones like Wildfire (red), Calypso (pink) and Summer Red (orange/red) will all reach about the six-metre-high mark.
‘Magnolia Kay Parris’ is a slightly larger growing variety of the very popular ‘Magnolia Little Gem’. It keeps the same shape and form but has a gentle wavy edge on the leaf. Like Little Gem, they make great specimen trees or can be grown as an upright bushy informal hedge or screen. Another popular evergreen Magnolia of this size is the ‘Magnolia Teddy Bear’, with large and rounded, glossy leaves that are dark green on top, with a felted, bronze underside.
A medium tree that we get a lot of enquiries about are the trees planted between the shopping centre and the carpark at Vaughan St, Shepparton. These are an inland native tree, ‘Geijera parviflora’ commonly called a ‘Wilga tree’. They have a dense crown with thin drooping leaves and small white flowers. They can reach a height of eight to 10 metres. Wilga trees are very drought-tolerant hardy trees once established, although they can be quite slow-growing at first. You only have to look at the samples in Vaughan St to see why they are a popular choice, especially for native gardens.
When planting evergreen trees, keep in mind not only their height and size but how much light they might block out and where they are going to throw their shade, as they will influence your planting choice in the surrounding gardens. If you are unsure at all on what is going to suit your garden, call in and have a chat with one of the garden centre staff. They will be happy to help you run through some of the options available.
Evergreen shrubs that change colour through the seasons.
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Leigh Clapp
