From Ground Covers to Shrubs
The Spruce / Autumn Wood
Evergreen flowering plants represent the best of both worlds.
Many gardeners seek plants with pretty flowers, just as many seek specimens with evergreen leaves.
Sure, you might grow different plants to satisfy these dual needs.
The Spruce / Autumn Wood
But, in small yards, you would eventually run out of space doing it that way.
It would be much better to have these needs satisfied with one and the same plant wherever possible.
Evergreen shrubs of thebroadleafvariety multitask nicely to fill this need for evergreen flowering plants.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
Their evergreen leaves are valued almost as highly as the blooms and can be quite large.
Those on ‘Cynthia,’ a cultivar of the Catawba rhododendron shrub, are 6 inches long.
Cynthia (zones 5 to 8) grows 8 to 15 feet tall and wide and has rose-pink flowers.
The Spruce / David Beaulieu
Grow it in full sun to partial shade.
Azalea Shrubs
The Spruce / David Beaulieu
TheRhododendrongenus includes not only its namesake shrubs but also azaleas.
Only some of the latter are evergreen.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
A magnificent example of an evergreen azalea is the Stewartstonian.
The plant becomes 4 to 5 feet tall, with a similar spread.
Grow it in zones 5 to 8.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
The broadleaf evergreen leaves ofKalmia latifolia(zones 4 to 9) are especially valued for use in garlands.
The flowers are equally magnificent.
They appear in large clusters in late spring.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
Andromeda
Pieris japonicais a shrub that blooms in early spring.
Its new foliage is orange-bronze.
It becomes 6 to 8 feet in height, with a similar spread.
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The trick here is that those flowers are really made up of long-lasting sepals rather than short-lived petals.
But compared to the other three, the leaves ofEricaare quite needle-like.
The heath familyloves acidic soil.
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The flowers are very fragrant, white to light-pink, tubular, and grow in clusters.
Grow this bush in partial sun to partial shade.
Its flowers are hot-pink, but it’s best known for its burgundy-tinged, evergreen leaves and arching branches.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
Creeping Myrtle
Vinca minoris a blue-flowering vine.
Before planting it, do check, though, to see if it’s invasive locally.
Creeping Phlox
Like creeping myrtle,Phlox subulatais an evergreen flowering ground cover.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
But whereas the former creeper can be grown in shade, the latter needs full sun.
This zone-3-to-9 plant bears tiny, needle-like leaves.
Flowers can be pink, red, rose, white, blue, purple, lavender, or bicolored.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
Flowers are white, with tinges of lavender.
Prune it to keep new evergreen leaves coming, as these look better than the older leaves.
Grow candytuft in zones 4 to 8 in full to partial sun.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
But the foliage is so attractive in its own right that it’s tempting to call thisearly-spring bloomerafoliage plant.
Grow Lenten rose in zones 4 to 9 in partial to full shade.
