Whilst it’s relatively easy to have lots of plants to enjoy in your summer garden, it is more difficult – but not impossible – to find plants that maintain interest during the remainder of the year.

This month, we’re highlighting five of our favourite evergreen plants that grow successfully in East Lothian and explaining the role that they can play in making your garden appealing all year round.

Escallonia varieties

Escallonia is top of our list because of its hardiness and tolerance to strong and salty winds, making it an ideal shrub for a coastal or hilltop location.

With glossy green leaves and attractive flowers that last most of the summer, it is a medium-sized shrub reaching an ultimate height of 1.5-2.5 metres.

It is frequently used as a hedge, forming a delightful windbreak for some of the less robust plants.

Depending on the variety chosen, the flowers can be white, pink, peach or red, flowering through summer and into autumn.

Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald Gaiety’

We’re particularly fond of this relatively small and compact variegated shrub because of its hardiness and versatility.

With striking green and white foliage throughout the year, it can create an attractive centrepiece in a pot, form a focal point in a border or grow into an unusual hedge – it will even climb if grown against a wall.

Although ‘Emerald Gaiety’ is one of our best-sellers, there’s a wide range of other Euonymus varieties, offering a choice of size and leaf colour.

Euonymus do produce flowers, but they are small and somewhat insignificant, and this shrub is primarily grown for its eye-catching, all-year-round foliage.

Mahonia x media ‘Winter Sun’

This is one of the hardiest evergreen shrubs available, with flat, glossy, leaves ending in spines – somewhat like holly.

Very successful in East Lothian, it’s tolerant of low light levels and can survive even in shady corners of the garden.

It is particularly attractive in autumn/winter, producing long racemes of yellow flowers which turn into blue/black berries after flowering.

Although the ultimate height of this shrub will vary depending on its situation, if unchecked and in ideal conditions it can eventually reach up to 2.5-4 metres tall with a spread in the range of 1.5-2.5 metres wide. However, in our local conditions we’ve rarely seen it much above 1-1.5metres.

Picea omorika

If you’re looking for an evergreen tree, it’s worth remembering many conifers are extremely hardy and tolerant of adverse conditions, surviving in severe coastal conditions and at altitude.

The tree we’re highlighting is the Picea omorika, sometimes called the Serbian or Bosnian spruce, being native to those countries.

With dense, short green needles that are slightly whitish underneath, it has a dense, columnar habit, and forms a graceful, slender, conical feature in the garden.

It is extremely hardy and, although it doesn’t require any pruning, it can be trimmed to remain in proportion to the garden.

Many of our customers love garden lighting, and the stable conical form of P omorika makes it the ideal plant for strings of lights!

Phormium varieties

For something a little different, why not try Phormium?

Phormium is sometimes known as the New Zealand flax because of its country of origin. It is one of the hardiest plants we know and indeed is used effectively at the front of the garden centre as a windbreak!

Grown primarily for its form, the clumps of strap-like leaves are virtually indestructible, and some years will even produce tall, architectural flowering spikes which dry and remain a feature.

Most often grown as a focal point, it can also be used to create an unusual hedge.

There are many varieties of Phormium to choose from offering a wide range of colours, from eye-catching yellow through to deep, purplish-black, or combinations of colours on striped leaves.

Similarly, there’s a great selection of sizes available, from small compact varieties to the larger varieties that can exceed two metres.

It’s been very difficult to choose only five of our favourite evergreens, because there are so many wonderful plants that will provide you with structure, form, colour and interest throughout the year.

If you require advice on these plants or other options, just please speak to one of our plant team and they’ll help you choose an evergreen plant that’s just right for you!