When you need a boxwood alternative in your landscape, these evergreen plants are excellent solutions.
Marty Baldwin
Boxwood is an excellent evergreen shrub for many situations, but sometimes you need a different option.
Maybe theres an outbreak ofboxwood blightin your area, or you dont have the rightgrowing conditions for boxwood.
Credit:Marty Baldwin
Choose a variety that matures at a size you want to avoid damaging the plants with unnecessary pruning.
are one of the showiest evergreen boxwood alternatives.
They are grown mostly for their colorful flower display rather than the evergreen foliage.
Credit:Bob Stefko
These shrubs bloom in spring, and some, such as the Encore Azaleas, rebloom in fall.
This incredibly adaptable largeevergreen shrubtolerates both heat and drought well.
These plants can be maintained as beautiful sheared formal screens and hedges.
Credit: Nancy Rotenberg
Dwarf Burford settles in the middle, growing 68 feet tall and wide.
The pointy leaves can be painful, so always wear gloves and safety glasses when working around them.
Its small leaves resemble boxwood, but this plant grows well in moist conditions, unlike boxwood.
Credit:saraTM / Getty Images
The black fruits are small but attractive.
Some selections of inkberry can grow up to 8 feet tall.
One concern with many older varieties is that the plants often shed the lower leaves.
Credit: Denny Schrock
New selections such as Gem Box and Strongbox dont have this problem.
These varieties also grow to a more manageable height of only 2-3 feet tall.
Growing Conditions:Full sunto part shade, average to moist soil.
Credit:Brie Williams
Best in acidic soil.
Avoid high pH soils
Size:Varies.
28 feet tall, 310 feet wide
Zones:49
The berries of inkberry holly are toxic to humanswhen ingested.
Credit: Denny Schrock
At a glance, it may be confused with a boxwood, although Japanese holly is usually darker green.
It is slow-growing and can bepruned heavily once the new growth has hardened.
It makes an excellent slow-growing and dense hedge.
Credit:Denny Schrock
in the southern garden.
The new growth emerges light green and matures to a rich dark green color.
It is better to allow this plant to grow naturally and remove stray and awkward growing branches as needed.
Credit:Courtesy of Spring Meadow Nursery
Northern Bayberry
Denny Schrock
Northern bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica)is a mid-sized, semi-evergreen native shrub.
It has beautiful grayish-blue fruits from late summer through winter.
Thefruit is attractive to birdsand is covered in a fragrant waxy substance used to make bayberry-scented candles.
Credit:Denny Schrock
This plant tolerates salt spray, full sun, drought, and wet soils.
It has a generally upright and open growth habit with light green leaves 1.54 inches long.
Use it in a native plant garden, as an informal screen, or as a loose hedge.
It can be lightly sheared to maintain a tidy appearance.
It has glossy evergreen foliage and a compact mounded shape.
This plant is attractive when left to grow naturally, and it responds well to shearing and hedging.
Credit: Peter Krumhardt
Prune and shear in spring before the new growth becomes woody.
Plant Name:xPyracomelessp.
It has attractive and aromatic olive-green leaves, fragrant blue fruits in winter, and beautiful gray bark.
The new growth is golden-yellow, contrasting nicely with other darker evergreen trees and shrubs.
It makes an attractive hedge or foundation plant.
Left unsheared, it develops a billowing cloud-like form.
It has small dark green leaves, dense growth, andresponds well to heavy pruning.
This fast-growing plant grows as much as 23 feet per year that can grow quickly into a dense hedge.
Yew
Yew(Taxusspp. )
is a popular jot down of evergreen with dark green needles and red berries.
Some common shrubs, such as heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica,shown above), barberry (Berberisspp.
However, these plants can quicklyescape from gardens and spread aggressivelyin many parts of the country.
Dont rely exclusively on retailers when making important decisions for your garden.
NC State Extension
Ilex glabra.
NC State Extension
Ilex Crenata.
NC State Extension
Cephalotaxus Harringtonia.
Cephalotaxus harringtonia (Japanese Plum-Yew, Spreading Plum-Yew) | North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox.
Accessed August 2, 2024. https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/cephalotaxus-harringtonia/.
NC State Extension
Poisonous and Non-Poisonous Plants.
