With their vast array of shapes and sizes, conifers are useful for adding year-long interest and evergreen structure to your garden.
conifers are trees or shrubs that bear cones. they are a versatile group that can be used in many ways within a garden, excelling as privacy screens, sound barriers, backgrounds for flowering borders and as accents in rock gardens. The smaller dwarfing varieties are also perfect for creating contemporary pot displays.
There are three things to look for when considering conifers:
Height
- Dwarfing have a super-slow growth rate, reaching a height under 40cm in 10 years.
- Slow growing have a height under 1 meter in 10 years
- Medium growing can reach u to 2 meters in 10 years
- Fast growing will reach any height above 2 meters in 10 years.
Shape
All conifers can be broadly split into four basic
shapes: round or mounded, flat or ground hugging, conical and cylindrical.
Intended use
Hedges
Fast growing conifers are perfect for hedges, providing privacy whilst absorbing traffic noise and pollution. They also offer shelter for birds and wildlife whilst providing a backdrop to your flower borders and lawns.
Ground cover
Flat and ground-hugging conifers are great for helping to suppress weeds, especially on banks and slopes. They are also a great way to edge ponds, paths or borders or cover up unsightly areas. Alternatively, they can be used as a foil for bulbs, flowers, or grasses.
Pots and Containers
Miniature conifers make a perfect centre piece to a patio pot or container, happily sitting in the same pot for 5 years with minimal attention. Try them with winter bedding and spring bulbs and flowers which can then be swapped for summer bedding for attractive containers all year round. Water in summer, trim occasionally and add an annual slow-release fertiliser to keep them healthy. Dwarf varieties have distinctive shapes and needles, making them ideal as pot grown specimens for that contemporary look. Choose a pot relative to the conifer’s size in a complementary colour.
Ponds & Water features
Conifers look great when planted around water features, especially when paired with acers and azaleas. They can also be useful for hiding pond liners and breaking up any hard edges.
Borders
Slow to medium growing conifers provide excellent evergreen structure within borders from which to display and contrast
other plants, especially heathers, grasses, and architectural perennials. They are also useful for informal boundary planting as they help to absorb traffic noise.