Evergreen, easy to care for, short shrub for breaking line of sight. Portland, OR
plant recommendations - What are some low maintenance evergreens for an east facing partly-shaded bed? - Gardening & Landscaping Stack Exchange
Any suggestions for low maintenance evergreen shrub/perennial in zone 7a? Partial sun
Looking for suggestions on low maintenance evergreen shrubs and plants for SW Pennsylvania
I like schip laurel. Though a broadleaf, they’re evergreen. In the spring they have white bottle brush-shaped flowers that smell great and attract pollinators. They’re also dense enough to create privacy or block unattractive views.
Mahonia are another great plant. They’re in the ilex family with holly, so the leaves get a bit prickly. They have bright yellow flowers in winter/early spring and then purple fruits.
If you have a protected spot, consider also camellia. There are late fall/winter varieties that have colorful blooms just when everything else is going dormant.
On a smaller scale, you might like hellebore. They thrive in shade and bloom in February/March.
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I’m looking for something that tops out at no more than 4 feet to create not quite a hedge row but enough to break line of sight from the street. The area is under some Doug firs and gets dappled light. I have a lot of fruit trees and berries so I’m not really looking for anything else that will produce fruit.
I also don’t need to just focus on natives, I have plenty of wild natives that have been established in the area and are planting a few more.
This spot will also be hooked up to drip irrigation.
On my short list are Mexican orange and some kind of dwarf viburnum. I know it fruits but pineapple guava is such a pretty shrub as well and I can get 2.5 foot plants for only $35. A lot of the obvious choices are out due to nature height like pacific wax Myrtle. Ideally they should be easy to source locally at 2ish feet as well. I’d like to mix and match as well. The look I’m going for is a maintained wild space.
Any suggestions for some others I should consider? Thank you.
I just want to pick up a couple of points you mention, the first regarding your intention to use membrane and pebbles; you appear to be saying you want evergreen shrubs to avoid the need to pick up dead leaves from the pebbles, but I'm sorry to say that's not what's going to happen. Evergreen shrubs do not keep the same leaves all their lives, they lose leaves too, the difference is, they lose them year round in small amounts and replace them immediately, whereas deciduous plants drop the lot at once in autumn. A quick glance under any holly tree growing in the wild (or possibly in someone's garden) reveals the truth, because there's always a carpet of leaves beneath, so you may want to reconsider using pebbles.
Second, you've mentioned lavender and rosemary - both these are mediterranean type plants and prefer that type of climate, so that means full sun and relatively dry soil conditions, neither of which will be provided by this planting area. I should also point out (it might make you feel better!) that neither of these plants is fragrant UNLESS you bruise them in some way, so you won't be smelling lavender as you walk up your path unless you brush against it. If the front of the bed along the path is in a lot of sun, then you can certainly try lavender, but their useful life span is really only 5 years before they become woody and gawky looking.
If its east facing, it only receives sun up to lunchtime most of the year; if part of it is further shaded by a solid obstacle like your hedge, then basically you're looking at shade planting. Shrubs to consider are Skimmia varieties, Sarcococca varieties (fragrant flowers in winter), Prunus 'Otto Luyken', Euonymus fortunei varieties, Buxus and Mahonia aquifolium, which slowly reaches about 7 feet with a spread of about 5 feet over time. With the Buxus (Box) you'd need to keep it trimmed back to prevent it getting as large as it wants. All the other plants mentioned don't get higher than 3-5 feet.
Given the problem with dirty pebbles, it's probably better to forget the membrane and stones and plant low growing ground cover as well as the shrubs; over time, they will spread and prevent weed growth. Candidates for ground cover include Lamium varieties ('White Nancy'; 'Beacon Silver' for instance, there are yellow leaved varieties too), Ajuga reptans, Pachysandra terminalis, Campanula muralis (now called C.portenschlagiana, don't buy C. carpatica instead, its a messy grower) and a low growing Euonymus called E. fortunei 'Harlequin', which doesn't get higher than about 4 to 6 inches. For sunnier areas, Arabis procurrens variegata, Iberis sempervirens, possibly Helianthemums, though they really prefer as much sun as possible.
All plants mentioned are evergreen, including the ground covers. One other plant that flowers well in shade and which might therefore be useful is Liriope 'Munro White'. If you aren't going to have pebbles,and some of the bed gets half a day's sun, then Berberis atropurpureum 'nana', with reddish purple leaves and/or Berberis 'Golden Nugget' with bright yellow leaves will liven it up a bit, but they do need half a day's sun or they'll just be green; they are deciduous and neither gets taller than around 18 inches.
I believe a very close match to your idea is Abelia x grandiflora.
It is less known, less used than viburnum, aucuba, yew, etc., but this may be considered as an advantage.
Some web sites say that east-facing position is fine for them, even though they are sun-loving creatures.
It is almost evergreen. The leaves are smallish, the wind takes care of most of fallen ones.
The flower fragrance is mild from the distance, but absolutely mind-blowing close to those little flowers. Btw, flowering season is loooong.
The base species grows to 4 m, but most of the cultivar are around 1 m, have a nice natural habit, and do not require almost any pruning. 'Kaleidoscope' is one such cultivar, and features an interesting changing leaf color on top of that.
(I have no idea why the name is "grandiflora" - the flowers are tiny; but don't let this deceive you, their fragrance is powerful, abelia is a magnet for bees and butteflies)
(images from WaitroseGarden web site)