Evergreen Shrubs

Live Evergreen Shrubs for Year-Round Structure & Greenery

Evergreen shrubs are the workhorses of garden design — the plants that hold a landscape together in winter when flowering shrubs and perennials have gone dormant. Our evergreen shrub collection covers classic boxwoods, laurels, and a handful of distinctive specialty shrubs, all chosen for their ability to stay green and structured through every season.

Boxwood Varieties

Boxwood is one of the most widely used evergreen shrubs for a reason: it's dense, responds well to shaping, and holds its form reliably. The Wintergreen Boxwood is a classic, reliable choice and the most budget-friendly option in this group, while the Winter Gem Boxwood offers a similar dense habit with slightly different cold tolerance. For a more formal, sculptural look, the Green Mountain Topiary Boxwood (Ball) and Green Gem Topiary Boxwood (Cone) come pre-shaped into classic topiary forms, useful for framing an entryway or adding structure without years of pruning to get there.

Laurel Varieties

Laurels bring a different leaf texture and a faster growth habit than boxwood. The Volcano Cherry Laurel and Centre Court™ Cherry Laurel both offer dense, glossy foliage well suited to hedging or screening, while the English Laurel Topiary (Single Ball) brings that same laurel foliage into a pre-shaped, ornamental form similar to the boxwood topiaries.

Specialty Evergreen Shrubs

Beyond boxwood and laurel, this collection includes a few shrubs with their own distinct character. The American Wintergreen offers a lower-growing, more naturalistic option compared to the formal shapes of boxwood and laurel. The Southern Wax Myrtle brings aromatic foliage and a faster growth rate, often used for informal screening. The Fragrant Tea Olive Tree stands out for its intensely fragrant small flowers, adding a sensory dimension most evergreen shrubs don't offer. The Sunshine Ligustrum rounds out the collection with bright golden-yellow foliage, a useful option if you want color contrast from an evergreen rather than the typical dark green.

Growing Conditions

Growing zones across this collection generally fall between 4 and 11, with the Wintergreen Boxwood and Green Mountain Topiary Boxwood rated for some of the cooler zones at 5 through 8 and 4 through 9 respectively. Warmer-climate options like the Southern Wax Myrtle are rated for zones 7 through 11. Sun requirements lean toward full to part sun for most varieties, including the boxwoods, laurels, and Fragrant Tea Olive Tree, while the Sunshine Ligustrum specifically needs full sun to maintain its bright foliage color, and the American Wintergreen tolerates part sun.

Building Structure That Lasts

Evergreen shrubs are most useful as the structural backbone of a garden bed — the plants that frame and anchor more seasonal flowering shrubs and perennials. Whether you choose classic boxwood, faster-growing laurel, or one of the specialty varieties, these shrubs are what keep a garden from looking bare during the months when everything else has gone quiet.