Brighten up your garden with variegated foliage conifers

Variegated conifers for hedges

Conifers lend themselves to a variety of uses. If you wish to incorporate them into a hedge, here are a few columnar-habit varieties with variegated foliage to consider :

For brightness and plenty of light, consider the Taxus baccata ‘David’ with foliage almost chartreuse-yellow. It forms a slender, narrow column suitable for small gardens or terraces as a privacy screen, with a mature height of 1.5 m and a width of 80 cm. Very versatile, this yew with flattened, glossy needles in a beautiful almost bi-colour green-yellow, very soft to the touch, thrives in sun or partial shade in a wide range of soils.

The Virginian Juniper or Juniperus scopulorum ‘Blue Ivory’ shows a fastigiate habit, arrow-shaped, and foliage adorned with cream-coloured shoots contrasting with the bluish adult foliage. Very narrow, it reaches 2.5 m in height at maturity for only 50 cm wide. It prefers well-drained soils, even calcareous and poor soils. However, it struggles in Mediterranean climates as well as in very humid climates and in heavy soils.

Here is a Thuja or Thuja plicata ‘Zebrina’ with striking foliage. Its flattened branches, covered with scale-like leaves imbricated in one another, giving it a flat appearance, are light green, wonderfully striped with yellow, as if sunbeams were running through them. Much larger, this one reaches 20 m high by 7 m wide and thrives in full sun on moist soil.

Juniperus scopulorum ‘Blue Ivory’

Colourful varieties for groundcover rockeries.

Now let’s turn to the dwarf conifers, with a creeping and spreading habit to form attractive evergreen groundcovers, particularly useful in rock gardens.

The sabina juniper or Juniperus sabina ‘Variegata’ has a shaggy appearance, with branches in all directions, inclined at 45° to the centre of the plant. The foliage is green with a slight bluish tint, maculated with cream to yellow on either side, rather irregularly. It reaches 60 cm in height and 1.2 m wide. Not particularly demanding, it nevertheless requires well-drained soil and is wind- and pollution-tolerant when planted in full sun.

The dwarf mountain pine or Pinus mugo ‘Sunshine’ forms a small dense shrub of 80 cm in all directions, with very tightly packed branches covered in fine needles. They are arranged in brush-like sprays around the shoots. The new green shoots emerge in spring, irregularly striped with cream-yellow, varying from yellow to white, creating a surprise with each new growth. Versatile, it only dislikes extreme heat.

The scaled juniper or Juniperus squamata ‘Golden Flame’ peut avec le temps atteindre 1,70 m de hauteur et s’étaler sur 2,6 m. Ses jeunes pousses jaune crème apparaissent au printemps sur des aiguilles d’un vert-bleuté aux reflets gris le reste de l’année. Son port est un peu irrégulier, étalé, soutenu par des rameaux obliques. Ses branches portent de nombreux rameaux courts et rigides, habillés de petites feuilles très serrées et imbriquées les unes dans les autres. Plantez-le au soleil, sauf en situation aride, en sol drainé, gardant la fraîcheur, même pauvre.

Juniperus sabina ‘Variegata’

For pots

To plant conifers in pots, opt for forms with an ideally bushy habit. Conifers, hardy and most often evergreen, are interesting container subjects to provide a permanent and ornamental presence that doesn’t grow too quickly!
Variegated foliage adds extra brightness. Beyond the following selection, many conifers can be grown in pots.

Reduced, bushy and compact form of Pinus parviflora Pinus parviflora ‘Fukai’, rarely available on the market, features superb foliage with changing and contrasting colours, very bright in winter and spring. Its shoots are slightly twisted, bearing needles that are somewhat spiralled, arranged in dense tufts, arranged in a helix. In winter, it bears golden needles, giving way in spring to very colourful young growth, blue-green ringed with a pale golden-yellow variegation. It thrives in full sun. At 10 years, it stays under 1 m in height and width, ultimately forming a bush about 2.4 m high and 1.8 m wide.

Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Pearly Swirls’ is a bright and charming dwarf conifer, adorned with young shoots of a pearly white-cream that glisten on slightly tousled blue-green foliage with silvery reflections. It forms a perfectly round, very dense bush and ultimately reaches 1.75 m in height with a spread of 1.5 m. It enjoys sun and fresh, fertile soils, neutral to acidic.

Pinus densiflora ‘Oculus-draconis’ is a Japanese red pine whose flexible needles are a bright green striped with pale cream, turning to yellow-green with a brownish tinge in winter. It reaches 1.5 m in height at 10 years, then 2–3 m in all directions after 20 years with a pyramidal habit. Over time it forms a small, airy and graceful tree, irregular and inclined. It enjoys sun and well-drained, ordinary soil.

Pinus parviflora ‘Fukai’

Some rarities

First, let’s mention Pinus parviflora ‘Fukai’ from the previous paragraph.

Another item for collectors, the Japanese false-cypress, or Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Tsatsumi Gold’, recipient of an Award of Garden Merit, is a dwarf variety that forms an irregular and contorted shrub, with a habit that is both erect and spreading, with very fine and sinuous, twisted and tortuous shoots. Its foliage consists of tiny flat scales, yellow-gold at the tips when young. The older foliage blends yellow-green with greenish. Eventually, it reaches 1 m in all directions.

The Juniperus squamata ‘Floreant’ is a small, rare conifer with foliage displaying a beautiful blue-silver tone sporadically splashed with pale yellow to cream-white all year round. With a bushy, compact and rounded habit, it eventually reaches 45 cm in height and 90 cm in diameter. Its branches are completely covered with tiny needles, very densely packed. Not fussy about soil, it enjoys dappled sun and well-drained soil, even if poor.

Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Tsatsumi Gold’

For specific growing conditions.

In shade

Exceptional variety, the  Picea orientalis or Oriental spruce ‘Silver Seedling’ produces very dense young shoots, with a colour that is more or less silvery or pale yellow on dark green foliage. Its branches are clad with very short, glossy needles, arranged radially and very densely around the branches. It will reach 70 cm in height with a base spread of 40–50 cm in 10 years, and, at maturity, a shrub of  1.5–3 m tall and 1.5 m in diameter, with a variable habit, slightly prostrate and rounded, or, conversely, more or less erect to pyramidal, over time. It is grown in shade or semi-shade, in the morning sun, where it keeps its variegation all year round. It prefers ordinary, well-drained but moist soil.

Drought-tolerant

The common yews (Taxus baccata) ‘Ivory Tower’ and ‘David’ are very low-maintenance varieties that grow in ordinary soil, from acidic to slightly calcareous, cool to dry in summer. They readily tolerate all our climates and soils. The first has a very narrow vertical habit, not exceeding 30 cm in width and 3 m in height at maturity. Its branches are short and erect, its flat and glossy needles take on cream in winter and turn yellow in summer, contrasting with older foliage of a very dark green. The second is described in the first paragraph.

In windy conditions

Choose the le Pinus peuce ‘Aureovariegata’, a compact Macedonian pine variety. It resists wind well and thrives in many climates, except in very dry southern climates. Its mature size slowly reaches 2 m in height and 1.2 m in spread. Its needles, golden or green, rather thick, 5–8 cm long, are arranged in tufts and radiate around the shoots. Its foliage is bright and variegated gold and blue-green.

Taxus baccata ‘David’ and Pinus peuce ‘Aureovariegata’