The Winter Blues: Weeping Evergreens Provide Color and Form

September 22, 2008

If you're looking to (literally) spruce up your winter landscape with intriguing and colorful plants, weeping evergreens can do the trick.  These plants can vary from low growing shrubs to trees reaching a height of 70 feet or more. Their weeping, and/or twisted branches add visual intrigue to their coloration.  Knowing each plant's growth habit in advance is important in planning your evergreen landscaping.

Low, Medium and High: Diverse Growth Habits Serve Many Purposes

Weeping evergreens are available in many forms and colors, and are available at home and garden shows, nurseries, and lawn and garden centers. Here are some representative types:

Atlantic cedar (Cedrus atlantica "Glauca pendula")

This is a slow growing blue evergreen that achieves an average height between four and ten feet, and can spread between 6 and 10 feet wide. This configuration can be used as a dramatic solo act or as a background for smaller plantings. This plant requires full sun and well drained soil. It can be hardy to -15F.

Weeping Blue Spruce (Picea pungens "Glauca pendula")

Weeping blue spruce is slow growing, and achieves an average height of four to eight feet. It can spread as much as 15 feet, and is extremely cold hardy to temperatures of - 35F.  If you want to use this evergreen as a tree, it must be staked. Otherwise, it provides an attractive blue groundcover.

Weeping Alaskan Cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis 'pendula")

This tree's dark green foliage can complement blue evergreens in your landscape. It attains an average height of 25 to 30 feet with a spread of about 8 feet or so. This tree prefers full sun and is able to survive cold temperatures to about -35F.

Weeping Deodar Cedar (Cedrus deodara)

Weeping cultivars of the deodar cedar grow slowly and provide winter interest with weeping branches and twisted trunks. Generally hardy to -10F, small weeping deodar cedars can be susceptible to extreme winter conditions.

Sources:
Dave's Garden

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