Hello.This is my first post and I am a complete beginner to gardening. We have recently put up around 100 feet of 6 foot high (left natural) fencing and I would like to plant large evergreens and or small trees along it to break it up a bit. I was wondering what evergreens are people's favourites and why!

sorry...forgot to mention it is south facing!

On 2009-05-11 22:13:08 +0100, nicola said:


Hello.This is my first post and I am a complete beginner to gardening.
We have recently put up around 100 feet of 6 foot high (left natural)
fencing and I would like to plant large evergreens and or small trees
along it to break it up a bit. I was wondering what evergreens are
people's favourites and why!

Quite a bit depends on where you live. Escallonias are popular down
here in the south west and they attract bees which is a good thing,
given that bees are in rapid decline. Olearia is lovely, Eleagnus
ebbingei has a wonderful scent late summer/autumn. Eucalyptus can be
kept at a lower height and look graceful and have pretty leaves,
Cordylines are popular here, too.
--
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials
South Devon

In article ,
says...

Hello.This is my first post and I am a complete beginner to gardening.
We have recently put up around 100 feet of 6 foot high (left natural)
fencing and I would like to plant large evergreens and or small trees
along it to break it up a bit. I was wondering what evergreens are
people's favourites and why!




--
nicola

I am a fan of Hollies in all their many shapes sizes and colours, with or
without prickles!
Euonymous can also be lovely in their variegated leaf forms
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

Hello.This is my first post and I am a complete beginner to gardening.
We have recently put up around 100 feet of 6 foot high (left natural)
fencing and I would like to plant large evergreens and or small trees
along it to break it up a bit. I was wondering what evergreens are
people's favourites and why!




--
nicola

I am a fan of Hollies in all their many shapes sizes and colours, with or
without prickles!
Euonymous can also be lovely in their variegated leaf forms
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall



How about Garrya the silk tassel bush, they are spectacular when they are
big, then there is the Leycesteria Pheasant Berry, that is a very pretty
shrub that can be left to grow big or cut back , mine don't seem to mind
what I do with them.
Then there is the Photonia Red Robin beautiful and the Mahonia another
goodie not forgetting the Conifer Goldcrest, cheap and it glows on a dull
day :-) so many to choose from

kate

Ah you guys are great!! I already have photinia and Mahonia and love them!! I am going to google the recommendations made by others. If it helps I live in Islandmagee in N.Ireland. It is along the north east coast. Thanks for having patience with a complete novice. Your suggestions are so helpful!!

Charlie Pridham writes
In article ,

I am a fan of Hollies in all their many shapes sizes and colours, with or
without prickles!

Yes, holly is my favourite tree - my favourite has dark almost
blue-green leaves and red berries, but I also have bright green with red
berries, bright green with yellow berries, several different white and
yellow variegated ones, including 'ferox' with extra prickles.
--
Kay

nicola wrote:
Ah you guys are great!! I already have photinia and Mahonia and love
them!! I am going to google the recommendations made by others. If it
helps I live in Islandmagee in N.Ireland. It is along the north east
coast. Thanks for having patience with a complete novice. Your
suggestions are so helpful!!

Yes they are lovely. I was welcomed with much patience and kindess too

Given your location, damp, and mild but cool, here are some unusual NZ/Aus and Chilean plants you can try, which will do well for you but not for many other people, provided you aren't by some unfortunate chance on a limey soil. Many of these are known to do well in mild coastal locations in N Ireland, provided they aren't wind-blasted by salt spray.

Chilean Holly: Desfontainea Spinosa. Has a leaf just like a holly but exotic yellow/red tubular flowers in summer/autumn.

Luma apiculata (or Myrtus luma) has lovely myrtle type flowers then berries. When mature its bark is lovely. Also a variagated form Glanlean Gold, but doesn't tend to have the bark.

Tasmanian pepper: Drimys lanceolata (recently renamed Tasmannia lanceolata, but rarely seen under that name). Interesting spring flowers. Red leaf stems make a nice contrast with the green leaf. You need male and female plants to get the seeds, which can be used as pepper seeds (very cool). Maybe Winter's Bark (Drimys winteri) will also grow for you.

Chilean Fire bush: Embothrium coccineum wonderful display of red flowers in late spring.

Chilean Lantern bush: Crinodendron hookerianum: extraodinary hanging fuschia-coloured lantern like flowers.

Philesia magellanica: Just like the much sought after flowers of the climber lapageria rosea, but on a shrub few people can grow.

Chilean fern tree: Lomatia ferruginea, large fern-shaped leaves with intriguing exotic orange flowers

Chilean hazelnut: Gevuina avellana - huge compound leaves with exotic white flowers and very desirable macadamia-like nuts that take a year to mature on the tree, though I think you'll need an unusually warm summer for the nuts to develop. They do well in Devon.

Chilean cranberry: Ugni molinae. Similar to myrtle. Was Queen victoria's favourite berry and cultivated in Cornwall for her, but you'll have to be frost free through till about early December to get ripe fruit though.

New Zealand Flax: Phormium spp, comes in all sorts of colours these days with exotic flowers.

Kowhai: Sophora tetraptera and Sophora microphylla, the national tree of New Zealand, very showy yellow flowers cover the tree in early spring, delicate mimosa-like leaf, can be defoliated in a cold winter. Then long seed pods.

Lacebark: Hoheria sextylosa, covered in white fragrant flowers in July/August when most things aren't. Avoid Glory of Amlwch because it tends to be a shapeless lump when not in flower. Can lose leaves in a cold winter.

Barbed-wire bush: Colletia spp (two distinct types and a lot of confusion over the names) has vicious thorns rather than leaves, but covered in very aromatic flowers that smell of vanilla custard in summer.

Grevillea rosemarinifolia: a bit like rosemary with longer needles, and very exotic red flowers over a long period.

Banksia: probably B. spinulosa, B. ericifolia and B. integrifolia will grow for you, strange flowers like a cross between a pinecone and feather duster. It becomes a large seedpod which is used for various craft purposes. Interesting leaf too on some of them.

Mayten tree: Maytenus boaria unusual small evergreen tree, well known at Portmeirion that place with the pottery where they filmed The Prisoner near Porthmadoc. Also Maytenus magellanica, very hardy and wind tolerant, has been grown in the Faroes.

And don't forget Rhododendrons/Azaleas, many of them are evergreen. And hebes. And olearias. etc.

On 2009-05-12 18:18:11 +0100, nicola said:


Kate Morgan;844274 Wrote:
Hello.This is my first post and I am a complete beginner to
gardening.--
We have recently put up around 100 feet of 6 foot high (left natural)
fencing and I would like to plant large evergreens and or small trees
along it to break it up a bit. I was wondering what evergreens are
people's favourites and why!




--
nicola
-
I am a fan of Hollies in all their many shapes sizes and colours, with
or
without prickles!
Euonymous can also be lovely in their variegated leaf forms
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall-



How about Garrya the silk tassel bush, they are spectacular when they
are
big, then there is the Leycesteria Pheasant Berry, that is a very
pretty
shrub that can be left to grow big or cut back , mine don't seem to
mind
what I do with them.
Then there is the Photonia Red Robin beautiful and the Mahonia another

goodie not forgetting the Conifer Goldcrest, cheap and it glows on a
dull
day :-) so many to choose from

kate

Ah you guys are great!! I already have photinia and Mahonia and love
them!! I am going to google the recommendations made by others. If it
helps I live in Islandmagee in N.Ireland. It is along the north east
coast. Thanks for having patience with a complete novice. Your
suggestions are so helpful!!

Could you grow Fuchsia hedges there, or is it too icy in winter?
--
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials
South Devon

Ah you guys are great!! I already have photinia and Mahonia and love
them!! I am going to google the recommendations made by others. If it
helps I live in Islandmagee in N.Ireland. It is along the north east
coast. Thanks for having patience with a complete novice. Your
suggestions are so helpful!!

Could you grow Fuchsia hedges there, or is it too icy in winter?
--
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials
South Devon


Sacha is right Fuchsia hedges are amazing and pretty tough, my Riccartonii
is in a very exposed position and has come thro the winter.

kate