Evergreen Trees

About

An evergreen tree holds its foliage all year, which means privacy that never takes winter off, permanent shade and a garden with structure in July. This collection brings together more than 260 of them, weighted towards Australian natives: eucalypts, wattles, bottlebrushes, lilly pillies and figs, alongside evergreen magnolias and coastal hardy pohutukawa. Sizes run from affordable tubestock to advanced ex ground trees several metres tall. Choose by mature height first, then by how fast you need the result. How to choose an evergreen tree Mature height is the decision that cannot be undone, so make it first. For small gardens and spaces near the house, Little Gem Magnolia at 4m to 6m, Luscious Water Gum and the compact bottlebrushes give year round foliage without ever threatening the roofline. In the 6m to 10m band sit the great all rounders: Tuckeroo, Weeping Lilly Pilly , Ivory Curl Tree and lemon scented myrtle. Above that, Brisbane Box, hoop pine, Moreton Bay fig and the larger eucalypts are genuine landscape trees for acreage, parks and wide verges. Then decide on purpose: a row of Weeping Lilly Pilly for screening, a single Golden Penda or wattle as a flowering feature, or a broad canopied fig for shade you can sit under. Evergreen or deciduous Evergreen wins wherever the tree is doing a job that cannot stop: screening a neighbour, hiding a shed, softening a fence. The trade off is winter shade. A deciduous tree on the north side of a house lets winter sun through, so many gardens do best with both, evergreens on the boundary and a deciduous feature near living areas. If you are weighing it up, our guide to evergreen versus deciduous trees in Australia works through the decision room by room, and the deciduous tree collection holds the other half of the argument. Where these trees work in Australia The native backbone of this collection is the reason it travels so well. Tuckeroo, Brisbane Box, water gum and the paperbarks handle coastal wind and sandy soil fr