What evergreen plants to use in the East Z6?

18 years ago

Since moving to NJ, I missed all my fragrant plant collections, magnolias, gardenia, banana shrub, orange jasmine, Indian/Arab jasmine, sweet olive, and many others....

Now what can I use to build a evergreen border to shape a patio area behind the house? I can think of the sweetbay magnolia and I'm not sure it is evergreen in Z6. The tall shrub border will provide some privacy. It will be under the shade of deciduous shade trees that I have yet to plant....

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Comments (3)

robinsway
18 years ago
Achang89, I love all the sweet olives and their wonderful fragrance. Here is my experience with growing them in zone 6b.

I think you have to give up on Osmanthus fragrans in 6b unless you have some perfect, sheltered spot for it. I've tried with it several times, but unless you can keep it in a container and bring it indoors, sooner or later a bad winter will get it.

Instead you can use Osmanthus heterophyllus, or maybe Osmanthus armatus or Osmanthus sasaba. I have all these growing and blooming well here. I don't know where you lived before, but if it was frost free there, you could enjoy the sweet olive aroma through the fall and winter. Here in 6b, my Osmanthus bushes bloom from now until a really hard frost, more or less mid-November.

My Osmanthus fortunei is blooming right now -- wonderful fragrance. O. fortunei has beautiful foliage, but a bad winter can leave it looking kind of beat up in the spring compared with those other varieties. These are all relatives of the sweet olives you've grown which can give you fragrant shrubs for your new border and do all right under the shade trees, especially if they get a head start.
jimshy
18 years ago
Mag. virginiana 'Henry Hicks' is supposed to be evergreen in z6, but it'll grow tall, and sweetbays don't usually grow thick enough to provide dense screening.

There are cultivars of mag. grandiflora, like Bracken's Brown Beauty, that are fully hardy in z6, but it would need full sun to look its best, and would also grow tall eventually.

How about some of the taller abelia cultivars? Not as strong a smell as osmanthus/jasmines, but it's similar.

Finally, lonicera fragrantissima is one of the best winter/spring scented shrubs ever, anywhere, and it stays kinda evergreen, though it may look a bit straggly, you can prune it any way you want, just like lonicera vines.

If you still miss your jasmines, grow 'em in pots on the patio, or plant some fragrant hostas under the shrubs!

Jim
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The choices for a flowering evergreen "tree" are very limited for zone 6 :-) You could increase your options with some shrubs that can be pruned/trained into a tree-like form, such as the rhododendrons or hollies mentioned previously, but otherwise you are limited pretty much to conifers (needled evergreens) if you want a real tree shape and height and something that holds its foliage through winter. You might want to consider a deciduous tree that has winter interest with bark effect - birches, a paperbark maple, etc., but these are not grown for their flowers, which are inconspicuous. A hardy form of crape myrtle may work but takes some time to develop its bark interest. A Stewartia pseudocamellia may be a good choice - it is pretty much a 4 season tree, with an interesting, zig-zagging branching habit, summer flowers, great fall color and will develop a fantastic camouflage bark effect in time. Here is a link that might be useful: Stewartia pseudocamellia
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achang89
Original Author
18 years ago
I got two M. grandflora 'Bracken's Brown Beauty' and a few Osmanthus heterophyllus bushes. One BBB will be in front lawn and the other one at the back, near patio. The Osmanthus will define the parameter of the backyard.

Still searching for hardy gardenias. Anything else I should consider? Thx.

What evergreen plants to use in the East Z6?

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robinsway

jimshy

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What evergreen plants to use in the East Z6?

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robinsway

jimshy

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