Use Evergreens to Make an Impact

Add evergreens to your yard to create a year-round show. Get ideas for how to landscape with these plants.

• Use Them in Beds and Borders

  There are hundreds of varieties of evergreens. While many grow into massive specimens, dwarf selections -- such as this bird's nest spruce -- are perfect for planting in beds and borders. Try them between brightly colored plants to give your eyes a visual break.
• Hide Your Home's Foundation

  Because they keep their foliage all winter, low-growing evergreens are perfect for planting around your foundation to hide it all year.

  Test Garden Tip: Make a bold statement by selecting varieties that offer different shapes and colors, but stay compact so they don't outgrow their space. 'Blue Shag' white pine, 'Montgomery' blue spruce, and 'Silver Whispers' Swiss stone pine are smaller selections that combine beautifully with 'Profusion White' zinnia, for example.
• Create Privacy

  One of the most common ways to use evergreens is as a screen in the landscape. Tall, columnar varieties of arborvitae, yew, and juniper are great for small spaces. If you have room, be sure to include broadleaf evergreens, such as rhododendrons, as well.
• Make a Living Arbor

  Some evergreens (such as junipers and yews) have a tight growth habit that makes them perfect for shearing into fun shapes. Try growing two a few feet apart and wire them together to create a unique arbor.
• Enjoy a Soothing Backdrop

  Give your beds and borders a beautiful background with evergreens. Choose tall varieties that have dark green foliage to accentuate bright colors. Or select cultivars with colorful foliage (such as the blue spruce shown here) to add interest to your plantings.

  Test Garden Tip: Pay attention to plant shapes. Tall, upright evergreens (such as narrow 'Iseli Fastigiate' blue spruce and 'Medora' juniper) create wonderful contrasts with mounded perennials and grasses, for example.
• Add a Garden Room

  Plant four modest-size upright evergreens -- such as dwarf Alberta spruce -- in a square to create a gardenroom. Even if you don't enclose the area with shrubs or other plants as walls, it will feel more intimate and inviting.
• Cover the Ground

  Enjoy a beautiful carpet by letting spreading evergreens become a groundcover. A creeping blue spruce, junipers, or spreading pine is perfect for filling a space with year-round color and interest.
• Introduce Your Personality

  Boxwood, yew, and juniper take well to tight pruning. Take advantage of this and clip them into fun shapes to add a bit of whimsy to your yard. A low boxwood hedge becomes fun with a mounded corner. Or try spirals (as this variegated boxwood has been pruned) and other shapes.
• Make a Grand Entrance

  Plant artistically sheared evergreens (such as the junipers shown here) on both sides of your gate or along a path to give an entry a bolder, more formal feeling. They'll take yearly pruning to keep their swirly shape, but the effect is worth the effort.
• Accentuate Fall Color

  One sure way to highlight the fall colors in your yard is to pair them with evergreens. They can look smashing against bold reds and oranges. And bright yellows practically sing next to a dark green background.
• Unify Your Yard

  Make garden design easy by choosing a theme and repeating it. For example, this garden makes use of circles -- a rounded boxwood echoes stone spheres along a path and the shape of an arbor farther along. You can do the same thing with just about any shape or color.
• Fill Your Containers with Drama

  Big, bold evergreens can be perfect container garden plants if you have a large container. This Austrian pine, for example, adds a dash of color (and privacy) to a rooftop garden -- but you can get the same effect on a deck, patio, balcony, or even along a wide driveway.
• Just Add Flowers

  Embrace flowering evergreens to add landscape drama. Rhododendrons, mountain laurels, and pieris add color in Northern areas.
• Reduce Your Energy Bills

  Keep cold winter winds from pulling all the heat from your home with a windbreak. Plant evergreen trees on the north or east side of your home and watch your savings grow.
• Go Bold

  Choose a particularly stunning evergreen (such as Rainbow's End Golden Alberta Spruce) and treat it as a specimen plant in your landscape. Selections such as these are so eye-catching they don't need neighbors.
• Create Curb Appeal

  Your front yard will shine all year long if you fill it with a collection of evergreens. Choose varieties with different forms, colors, and textures and you'll put on a show without a single bloom.
• Stop Mowing that Slope

  Save yourself hours of effort every week by planting a collection of evergreens (such as this mass of 'Blue Rug' juniper) on a hard-to-mow slope. They'll keep it looking good all year long, stop erosion, and smother most weeds so you can just sit back and enjoy the view.

Source: http://www.bhg.com/gardening/trees-shrubs-vines/trees/use-evergreens-to-make-an-impact/

About Globe Blue Spruce

Height: 5 feet

Spread: 5 feet

Sunlight:  Full Sun/ Partial Shade

Hardiness Zone: 2

Other Names: Blue Colorado Spruce;Colorado Blue Spruce

Description:

A small, dense globe-shaped shrub, very unlike the species, as a mounded form that eventually becomes a compact and dense Christmas tree-like shape, adaptable and hardy; intensely blue needles, an excellent choice for form and color in the garden

Ornamental Features:

Dwarf Globe Blue Spruce has attractive blue foliage which emerges silvery blue in spring. The needles are ornamentally significant but remain blue through the winter. Neither the flowers nor the fruit are ornamentally significant. The rough gray bark is not particularly outstanding.

Landscape Attributes:

Dwarf Globe Blue Spruce is a dense multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with a distinctive and refined pyramidal form. Its relatively fine texture sets it apart from other landscape plants with less refined foliage.

This is a high maintenance shrub that will require regular care and upkeep. When pruning is necessary, it is recommended to only trim back the new growth of the current season, other than to remove any dieback. Deer don't particularly care for this plant and will usually leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Dwarf Globe Blue Spruce is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Vertical Accent
• General Garden Use

Plant Characteristics:

Dwarf Globe Blue Spruce will grow to be about 5 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 5 feet. It tends to fill out right to the ground and therefore doesn't necessarily require facer plants in front, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a slow rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 60 years or more.

This shrub does best in full sun to partial shade. It is very adaptable to both dry and moist growing conditions, but will not tolerate any standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH, and is able to handle environmental salt. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments.

This is a selection of a native North American species.

Source: http://plants.bachmanslandscaping.com/12070012/Plant/1066/Dwarf_Globe_Blue_Spruce

How to Prune Evergreens

Most varieties of evergreens should be trimmed each year, as they need it, to keep looking their best and to retain their symmetry.

In the pruning of evergreens, it is desirous to retain the natural growing habits as much as possible, merely removing some of the longer, ragged-looking tips to encourage a denser, full growth. Evergreens are seldom trimmed sufficiently. 

Juniper

Arbor Vitae

Juniper & Arbor Vitae 

These are the “finger group.” Their branches grow out like myriads of tiny green hands. (See sketch 4.) Do not cut the protecting tips like fingers caught in a saw, but neatly disjoint them at the stem points. Arbor Vitae may be sheared severely, and thrive best if pruned in this manner. Junipers often lose their attractive appearance if sheared too heavily. For unique effects with spreading evergreens planted in rockeries or rock walls, weird shapes are often desirable to obtain attractive effects. (See sketch 10.) By pruning off some of the side branches, you may encourage them to trail in varying directions. Arbor Vitae make beautiful evergreen hedges, although they require consistent shearing and shaping each summer to make them compact and uniform. 

Douglas Fir

Fir and Spruce

These are the “Christmas Tree” groups which appear best as a perfect cone of soft masses of needles not too obviously pruned. All branches projecting beyond the natural pyramid nature should be cut back into line, and prune the side growth to overcome patchiness and encourage dense growth. In pruning these varieties you are dealing with the buds which form the new growth. On each branch tip there is a cluster of buds, usually dominated by a large central bud. (See sketch 9.) On the branches where bushiness is desired, remove the central bud carefully with the thumb and forefinger. The remaining buds will branch out making the tree dense and compact. If the branch is to continue in a straight line, the central bud must be carefully preserved. The topmost straightest point of the tree is the central leader. This bud must be saved, and if damaged or blighted, two leaders will form which will spoil the appearance of the tree. (See sketch 6.) Should this happen through some catastrophe, tie a brace to the most vigorous side branch and tie into an upright position with soft twine or cloth strips. (See sketch 7.)

Hemlock and Taxus (Yews)

Taxus Baccata

These are the “fern-like groups” and the most graceful of all evergreens, with long sweeping branches. Taxus usually require shortening of the long shoots they put forth in the early spring to keep them from becoming too open. (See sketch 8.) Hemlocks require some trimming, also, especially in shady locations. Do not shear with hedge shears, but rather remove the longest shoots at the branch base. (See sketch 5.)

Pine

The pine is a “rugged individual.” Seldom does it require shearing, and pruning destroys its individual characteristics. Like the Fir and Spruce, the central leader should be preserved and retained by tying to a brace if it becomes destroyed. The Mugho Pine (dwarf, globe shaped) is one exception. Prune this tree as you would a Juniper to keep it tight and symmetrical, by cutting back the new growth to one-half its length each sum- mer. If left untrimmed, it becomes ragged.