The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Improve Your Home Landscaping

Another evergreen with feathery foliage is the hemlock. The Canadian hemlock can be sheared in a symmetrical manner. Hemlock is most effective when planted in a grove with others.

Yew, with its thick glossy needles and dense, upward-reaching branches, is useful as both shrub and tree, growing well in sun and shade. Try using it not in the usual manner — as foundation planting only — but as a single handsome specimen against a wall of the garden. The low-spreading bushy dwarf yew can be clipped well. Other varieties are upright yew and Japanese yew, a tapering or conical tree or shrub used for hedges.

Care of Evergreens

Evergreens tend to be adversely affected by hot, dry summer weather and should be watered every 10 to 14 days at this time. Be sure the water reaches the deep-root growth, at least 6 inches deep. A mulch of grass clippings or peat moss will also protect the tree from loss of water in dry weather.

Evergreens and ivy are important elements in this well-designed garden.

Burlap and stakes screen rhododendron in winter.

Pruning in late spring before new buds appear seems to help an evergreen thrive. Prune so that the inner branches can develop and the tree or shrub is more compact. Formal trees can be kept trim, with no ragged branches sticking out. and badly shaped or deformed trees can be corrected through shaping.Evergreens are susceptible to "winterburn" from too much wind and winter sun, so that they dry up and their branches crack under the weight of snow or the force of wind.