12 Evergreen Flowering Plants to Add to Your Garden
For a gardener, evergreen flowering plants really are the best of both worlds. They provide a constant backdrop of lush green to your outside space and they also give you a pop of color! The 12 evergreen flowering plants in this list are a helpful addition to any garden, so be sure to consider them in your future gardening plans.
The Japanese camellia is a small tree or shrub with glossy green leaves and showy white, pink or red flowers. Native to Japan, it has since spread around the world and is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant, even becoming the official state flower of the U.S. state of Alabama. In China, it is considered a symbol of good luck and is a staple of many New Year’s celebrations.
Japanese pieris (Pieris japonica) is an evergreen shrub that produces chains of small flowers. But be careful, it can cause seizures and temporary blindness if consumed by animals or people. Even so, is sometimes grown in the foundation portion of gardens along with other shrubs.
Gardenia jasminoides is an evergreen shrub with unique, glossy evergreen leaves and stunning flowers. The sophisticated, matte white flowers are often used in bouquets. The exceptional beauty of this ornamental plant has made it a popular and highly appreciated plant amongst gardeners and horticulturalists.
Common periwinkle (Vinca minor) is a trailing evergreen subshrub that forms large, dense colonies. Because of this quality, Common periwinkle is commonly used in landscaping as a groundcover. It is a mildly toxic plant, but due to its pungent taste, it rarely gets ingested in amounts significant enough to cause toxic effects.
Rhododendron indicum is a small semi-evergreen flowering shrub native to East Asia, colloquially known as Evergreen azalea. It produces a great number of lovely pink flowers during the blooming time, which is why Evergreen azalea is often used for ornamental purposes. There are many cultivars of this gorgeous plant and some are used for bonsai.
The Lenten rose has been cultivated since the Germans began to do so in the mid-1800s, with varieties being created in the United Kingdom shortly after. Between the 1920s and 1960s, there was little interest in its cultivation until Helen Ballard bred new varieties. They blooming early in the year hence they get their name of “Lenten rose”.
Creeping phlox (Phlox subulata) is a flowering plant native to the United States. The Latin name Phlox subulata means needle-shaped, which describes its leaves. Creeping phlox is sometimes confused with marijuana due to its similar smell.
The Mountain laurel is most known for its reproductive methods, in which it creates tension on its stamens and flings its pollen onto insects. It is possible for the Mountain laurel to release pollen in a range of up to 15cm.
This evergreen shrub is used in outdoor landscaping. It flowers in early spring. Some varieties of Fringe flower grow green leaves and white flowers. A more popular maroon-leafed variety hit the US market in the 1980s, which flowers in eye-catching pinks or reds.
Evergreen candytuft (Iberis sempervirens) is a flowering plant native to southern Europe. The Latin name Iberis sempervirens refers to the plants appearance and means “always green.” Evergreen candytuft is popular in gardens due to the aesthetic value of its blossoms.
Both the foliage and the flowers of Winter heath (Erica carnea) add welcome color to a winter garden. It is suited to borders, containers, rock gardens, and banks and will bloom profusely throughout the winter. Extremely hardy, it will even bloom beneath the snow and become visible only when the snow melts.
Daphnes ‘Carol Mackie’, a daphne cultivar, is a small, rounded shrub boasting pink, fragrant flowers, which are best kept in a smaller garden. The plant’s hybrid name “burkwoodii” is in honor of the brothers Albert and Arthur Burkwood who were English plant hybridizers.