Underused Broadleaved Evergreens
In the Garden with Andrew
Andrew Bunting. Photo courtesy of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
The other day, when I was at my mother’s house in Haddon Heights, New Jersey, I was impressed by how well her broadleaved evergreen daphne shrub, which is more than 10 years old, has held up. (Most Philadelphia-area daphnes go into a decline after a few years, perhaps partly due to a fungus, Phytophthora, that occurs naturally in the soil.) Her plant’s longevity may be due to the soil at her house, which is acidic, sandy, and well-drained.
My mother’s plant is a so-called winter daphne, Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’, which can benefit from some protection during the winter—so it is a good idea to situate it next to a house or within a courtyard. However, her plant is doing well even though it is in a more exposed location. This relatively small shrub is a great addition to the winter garden. It reaches only four feet tall and its leathery leaves have beautiful cream-to-yellow-colored margins. From late winter to early spring, it is covered with intensely fragrant lilac-pink flowers.
Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’. Photo: Andrew Bunting
Recently, I walked through Swarthmore College’s Scott Arboretum to look for other broadleaved evergreen plants that might be less well-known, or just underused, and that could be used to enhance a winter garden. I did not have to go far to find a handful of unsung plants. For example, the bamboo-leaf oak, Quercus myrsinifolia, is a small ornamental evergreen with narrow, lustrous leaves. In its youth it is relatively fast growing and develops a nice pyramidal shape, so it makes an attractive backdrop in a small garden. Eventually the tree can reach between 20 and 30 feet in height, and its canopy broadens to a spread of about 20 feet. You may have to search around to find this oak, but it is undoubtedly available by mail order from some sources.
Another example, in the Scott Arboretum’s front garden, is Osmanthus armatus, a broadleaved evergreen that is commonly called the “holly olive” because it has beautiful holly-like leaves and is in the olive family, Oleaceae. Over time it grows into a perfectly rounded shrub. It looks great in the winter, and, in the fall, it has an abundance of very fragrant white flowers discreetly buried in its foliage. It ranks as one of the best fragrant plants for the garden. (You are likely to walk past an Osmanthus without noticing it and ask, “What is making that amazing smell?”) It used to be thought that Osmanthus were not very hardy in cold weather, but in recent years they have proven to be tough and durable.
An entire article could be written on my final example, the genus Illicium. It includes a group of plants that are native to the southeastern United States—including Illicium floridanum—and many Asiatic species as well. All of them are tough as nails: they are one of the few shrubs that reliably tolerate very dry, shady conditions. (I have some growing at the base of my mature Norway spruces, Picea abies—which create extremely dry, shady conditions—and they haven’t skipped a beat yet.)
Relatively new to the market is a very diminutive selection called Illicium floridanum ‘Swamp Hobbit’. After five years it reaches only eight inches tall with a spread of two feet, so it is a perfect addition to a small garden. Planted in mass, it makes a great evergreen groundcover for the garden. When I was on a recent visit to Stoneleigh Gardens—a public garden in Villanova that is part of the Natural Lands Trust, I saw that they had propagated hundreds of these plants, so they will undoubtedly be planting them out for mass effect as well. Like other Florida anise cultivars, Swamp Hobbit sports amazing spider-like maroon flowers that are very distinctive. And finally, all Illicium are truly deer-resistant: when the leaves are crushed, they emit an anise-like fragrance that is unappealing to deer.
Osmanthus armatus. Photo: Andrew Bunting
Send your gardening questions to editor@swarthmorean.com. Put “Garden” in the subject line.
Andrew Bunting is vice president of public horticulture at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and vice president of the Swarthmore Horticultural Society.
