Getting the best evergreen hedges for your garden is a big deal. Your hedge plants will play a prominent role in your garden for years to come - they will be, not just your border, but your backdrop. The background to the inspired display of plants and flowers that you choose to grow in front of it.
So we want to help you find the best evergreen hedges for your garden and to do that we have compiled a list below, covering all the different characteristics that you might be looking for in your evergreen hedging plants, and then listing the best options for you. Read on, and your next evergreen hedge plants will reveal themselves!
Why Evergreen Hedges?
The right evergreen hedging plant can transform your garden. Beautiful, thick green foliage that you can look out at all year round - offering privacy, improving the air quality, blocking out noise and providing a habitat for a plethora of wildlife to bring yet more joy and vibrancy to your garden. They will lose their leaves at some points, but unlike deciduous plants, they have new leaves growing when this happens, so they never look bare.
So let's explore the many different types of evergreen hedging species, bringing year round interest, and discover the perfect one for your outdoor space.
Best evergreen hedges for privacy
If you are looking for privacy, you're going to want nice tall hedges with dense foliage. So let us introduce you to the Photinia Red Robin. This fast-growing hedge (around 20 - 40 cm per year) produces beautiful red and green foliage - red at the start of the year, turning green as time goes on. During the summer, you'll also be rewarded with pleasing white flowers.
The Ligustrum Ovalifolium is another good option if you are looking at for the best evergreen hedges for privacy. This is an incredibly dense hedge that can grow up to 3.7 meters tall. You'll have a bloom of white flowers in the summer, and it grows quickly - about 30 cm a year.
Best low maintenance evergreen hedges
While evergreen shrubs are wonderful, they can sometimes require a fair amount of work - trimming, pruning, shaping etc. So if that's not really your thing, you may be interested in the Buxus Sempervirens - a box hedging plant. This is a slow grower, at around 10-15 cm a year, so it won't need to be trimmed as often as many other types of hedge. It also helps that it is a nice looking hedge, with its small glossy leaves and yellow flowers.
Best defensive evergreen hedges
The Scots Pine tree can make an excellent defensive hedge - as anyone who's had to crawl underneath a Christmas tree can attest! Plant these beautiful trees in a line and it will make a stunning hedge - and you can always add on some Christmas decorations when the time comes to bring it to life during the festive season!
Best low growing evergreen hedges
If you are just looking for a low hedge, the box hedging plant from above would be a good option, or you could try the Golden Privet. While these can grow quickly, between 30 - 60 cm a year, they are equally happy being trimmed down as low as 1 meter - so you can get the exact height that you require. Their black berries in the autumn attract plenty of nesting birds, and they have beautiful golden yellow foliage, which is an extra bonus!
Best fast growing evergreen hedges
The Thuja Atrovirens is an evergreen conifer that can grow up to around 60 cm a year - ideal if you want to add a hedge in somewhere quickly. The conifer is a classic hedge - wonderful dark green foliage, nice and uniform, that is incredibly robust and reliable.
Best evergreen hedges for small gardens
The large, glossy green leaves of the Prunus Rotundifolia, or Cherry laurel can be seen in gardens all over the country - and there's a good reason why they are so popular. They are incredibly versatile, at home in large or small gardens, despite growing quickly (around 30 cm a year). The bright red berries that they produce in Autumn is another added bonus!
Best evergreen hedges for large gardens
Consider the Prunus Lusitanica Angustifolia, more commonly known as the Portuguese laurel, if you are looking to border a large garden. They grow tall (up to 5 meters) and wide (around 4 meters) so can eat up that space that you want to fill. They're really interesting hedge plants, with their reddish stems and glossy dark green leaves.
Best evergreen hedges for wet soil
Most of the evergreen hedge plants that we have looked at on this list can tolerate wet soil, but it's worth mentioning the Norway Spruce hedge as an option. If you were looking for something a bit different, these conical shaped trees, when grown next to each other, form a great windbreak, and are surprisingly easy to grow.
Best dense evergreen hedges
The king of dense hedging is surely the Leylandii hedging plant. The Green Leyland has beautiful deep green foliage all year round, and is the perfect screen for the edge of the garden. Plant them a couple of meters apart, and you'll have the perfect border. They thrive in partial shade.
Best evergreen flowering hedges
If you want a bit of colour on your evergreen hedges, try the Pyracantha Red Column. Not only will you get bright white flowers during the summer, but you will also get vibrant bursts of bright orange red berries during the Winter months. They're also fast growing - up to 60 cm a year.
Best evergreen hedges for noise reduction
To keep noise out of your garden, try the English Yew. You get a lot of the attributes that we've already seen in some of the other hedges - dense, tall, hardy, red berries in the Autumn and quick growing (up to 60 cm a year). It's the fact that they are tall and dense that really helps them keep the noise away though - create your own sanctuary with this formal hedge.
Evergreen Hedges - Conclusion
We hope that we have provided you with enough information to help you pick the right evergreen hedge for your garden. Have a look through our selection of evergreen hedges to find your favourites. And if you've ever wondered why evergreen trees stay green, you can find out in our blog.
