7 conifers to brighten up shaded spaces
Our selection of the best varieties
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Among the options for planting in shaded areas, the conifers suited to shade stand out for their resilience and their ability to bring structure, colour and life year-round. If your garden benefits from dense blanket bog cover, there is a range of conifers able to thrive and brighten these shadier corners. This article invites you to discover 7 conifers that provide an evergreen and dynamic backdrop to your garden.
Cephalotaxus harringtonia 'Korean Gold' or Japanese plum yew
The Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Korean Gold’ is a small conifer offering soft, glossy foliage, with golden shoots in summer turning green in winter. It is distinguished by its spreading colonial habit and its elegance reminiscent of yew. Suitable for all exposure types, it prefers moist, slightly acidic soils. Ideal at the back of a border, in a rock garden, as a specimen or in groups, it adds structure and light to the garden.
‘Korean Gold’, particularly elegant, develops a columnar habit reaching 2 m tall by 90 cm wide after ten years. Its branches, covered with curved needles, bear fleshy fruits on the female plants and small pollen sacs on the male plants. Its bark is dark reddish-brown, adding to its charm.
This conifer is ideal for creating a backdrop in a border or at the garden entrance. Its architectural presence suits contemporary gardens, offering a durable alternative to clipped box. Paired with roses, peonies, ornamental grasses or groundcover plants, it plays with volume and colour to enrich the garden’s aesthetic.
Tsuga canadensis 'Jeddeloh' or Canadian hemlock
The Tsuga canadensis ‘Jeddeloh’ is a dwarf and unusual evergreen conifer, which adds a touch of charm to shaded areas of the garden thanks to its unique hemispherical, flattened form resembling a bird’s nest. Its glossy green needles arranged on tiered, trailing branches create a captivating visual effect. This conifer particularly favours partial shade or shade and requires moist, well-drained soil to thrive.
The Eastern Hemlock, from which it derives, is an evergreen conifer native to eastern Canada, where it grows slowly in mixed forests, preferring shaded environments. Capable of reaching 30 m in height and living up to 600 years, this species favours fertile and moist soils, while being susceptible to drought and direct sun exposure.
Discovered in Germany in 1950, the ‘Jeddeloh’ variety stands out for its compact size and globose, flattened habit, offering an almost weeping appearance. Its extremely slow growth means it will not exceed 40 cm in height after a decade, making it an ideal choice for small, standalone spaces or as a distinctive feature in shade gardens. It grows well in a pot and can also be planted near a water feature, where it enjoys the coolness.
Pinus mugo 'Green Column' or mountain pine
Pinus mugo ‘Green Column’ is an uncommon variety of mountain pine with a slender conical habit and dense foliage ranging from dark green to blue-green. Suitable for small gardens or large rockeries, this hardy and robust conifer does not require any pruning and adapts to various soil types, including poor and calcareous soils, as well as to all exposures, including shade.
‘Green Column’ is characterised by a compact, regular habit, with moderate growth that allows it to reach 2 m in height and 1 m of spread within ten years, eventually reaching 2.5 m. Its fine needles, arranged in pairs, and its blue-green shoots contribute to its distinctive appearance. Its brown-grey bark and branches with green and black hues add to its charm.
Ideal for small to medium-sized gardens, ‘Green Column’ can be planted as a specimen, in a hedge, or at the woodland edge, and blends seamlessly into a clump or as a backdrop to showcase other plantings. It harmonises with other dwarf conifers and grasses.
Snowy Podocarpus or Podocarpus nivalis
The Podocarpus nivalis, native to the New Zealand mountains, stands out for its great hardiness and adaptability. This evergreen bush, still underutilised in our gardens, offers dense, mounded foliage in dark olive-green colour, with a variable habit, spreading or bushy. It adapts well to dense shade as to full sun, is not fussy about soil type and resists drought once acclimatised, although it prefers moister conditions for optimal growth.
In its natural habitat, the Podocarpus nivalis can reach up to 5 m in height, but in the garden it generally stays below 2 m. It grows into a dense mass and sporadically produces pale yellow male cones and female cones that redden as they ripen.
This conifer finds its place in a modest-sized garden, in a border or rock garden, and blends perfectly into somewhat wild schemes, alongside flowering shrubs or in a small hedge, either left to grow freely or pruned. Install it with nandinas or sacred bamboo for a touch of refinement.
Picea orientalis 'Silver Seedling' or oriental spruce
The Picea orientalis ‘Silver Seedling’ is an exceptional cultivar of Oriental spruce with unique foliage, variegated in silver and sand against a dark green backdrop, giving each specimen a distinct personality. Its form varies, ranging from a slightly prostrate, rounded habit to a more upright or pyramidal appearance over time. This dwarf conifer, which prefers shade or filtered light to avoid scorch on its branches, grows slowly, gradually enriching the darker corners of the garden with its fantastical presence. It tolerates poor, moist soils.
‘Silver Seedling’ has an annual growth of 5 to 15 cm, reaching about 70 cm in height and 40 to 50 cm spread in ten years, ultimately measuring between 1.5 and 3 m tall and 1.5 m in diameter at maturity. In spring, its dense, silvery or pale yellow new growth contrasts magnificently with the darker older green foliage, especially when grown in shade.
Taxus baccata 'Dovastonii Aurea' or golden yew
The Taxus baccata ‘Dovastonii Aurea’ enriches the world of the common yew with its dazzling golden foliage, offering a touch of whimsy to this tree often regarded as austere. This bright conifer slowly develops a spreading, weeping habit, with drooping branches that, on female plants, bear bright red berries. Ideal for medium-sized gardens thanks to its moderate growth, it pleases with its year-round appeal, its low maintenance requirements, its robustness and its ability to adapt to a range of soils, exposures and climates.
‘Dovastonii Aurea’ stands out from common yews by its spreading, weeping habit, its golden foliage and its slow growth, not exceeding 5 metres. With an open crown and pliant branches, this bush adds a remarkable presence to the garden year-round. Dioecious, it produces red berries only on female plants after discreet flowering, adding to its ornamental appeal.
It blends harmoniously into a variety of garden styles, from classical to contemporary. Not fussy about exposure, it can be planted as a specimen or with creeping shrubs. Container culture is also possible, for small spaces or entrances.
Japanese spruce or Picea jezoensis var. hondoensis
The Picea jezoensis var. hondoensis, known as the Hondo spruce or Japanese spruce, is a majestic evergreen conifer and relatively rare in cultivation, native to the high mountains of southern Japan. With a broad, conical crown, it bears silvery spring shoots that develop into light green and then mid-green over the course of the year. Its pendulous, slender cones, green or orange, add to its charm, as does its red-brown bark that cracks with age. Suitable for large spaces when planted as a specimen, it can also be cultivated as a bonsai, appreciating montane climates with abundant summer rainfall as well as a partly shaded to half-shaded exposure.
The Picea jezoensis var. hondoensis stands out for its rapid growth. In cultivation, it rarely reaches more than 20 m in height, although it can grow to 30 to 50 m in its natural habitat. Its rigid, tiered branches bear short, flattened needles, with a distinctive white stomatal band on the underside. The cylindrical cones, bearing black winged seeds, contribute to its distinctive appearance.
Resembling the Norwegian spruce in its appearance and its typical ‘Christmas tree’ habit, this tree is ideal as a specimen in a large garden, requiring a montane climate with abundant summer rainfall. It does not tolerate excessive heat or drought.
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