Frame Entryways With These Unique Evergreens.
Beautiful homes generally aren’t considered beautiful based off of their exterior appearances alone, even if they have unique architecture. It’s actually the landscaping around the homes that draw the eye. Landscaping can create the difference between making a home look just okay or elegant and attractive.
One way to give your home an immediate facelift is to frame the entryway with evergreens. If kept in containers on the porch or planted in the ground, evergreens will provide bursts of color that will attract attention to your exquisite home. Evergreens will also greet and impress your guests on their way in.
Entryway trees aren’t limited to smaller evergreens that have a pyramidal shape like Christmas trees. There are a lot of unique options that will allow your home to stand out even more! Here is a list of entryway plants that will set your landscape ahead of the pack.
5 Unique Entryway Plants
1.The Dwarf Hinoki Cypress
The Dwarf Hinoki Cypress has a fluffy green canopy that sits in a pyramidal shape on top of a single, bare trunk. It has an explosion of color all year with its unique, soft curling foliage that provides texture in the landscape.
This spirited evergreen won’t take over your yard, because at most it grows 5 feet tall and one foot wide. They’re the perfect size to be kept in containers on the porch or patio, but they will also fit perfectly anywhere in the landscape as an accent piece or main attraction.
You can keep Dwarf Hinoki Cypresses outdoors all year, because they are extremely cold hardy. They can withstand the temperatures in growing zone 4, which has an average low temperature of -20 degrees Fahrenheit during the winter. With a little sunlight, and water your entryway trees will flourish.
2. The English Boxwood
Trees aren’t the only plants that are perfect for framing entryways, because shrubs and hedges also play a major role in framing and shaping the landscape. For example, the Wintergreen Boxwood has thick foliage perfect for topiary, the practice of clipping plants into ornamental shapes.
If you want to shape a bush into an elephant, then the Wintergreen Boxwood is the best choice. However, they can be used in less dramatic shapes as well. Many use boxwoods for shaping into uniform hedges. They can also be kept in containers and easily shaped into perfect circles, pyramidal shapes, squares, tree forms and more!
The creative potential for Wintergreen Boxwoods is limitless, but if left on their own they won’t take over the space. They only grow to about 4 feet tall, and 5 feet wide and have a rounded shape.
This is a low maintenance shrub, that won’t require a lot of attention. You don’t have to constantly trim your Wintergreen Boxwoods to keep them at a specific height or in a certain shape. Simply plant your boxwoods in the ground or in containers and watch them thrive and glow with their vibrant green hue with little care.
3. The Pygmy Date Palm
Quick! Turn your patio into a tropical get away with Pygmy Date Palms that are famous for their ability to easily grow in containers. They are so low maintenance that they can even be grown inside. If your area gets too cold for these palms bring them indoors for the winter. Once spring comes around the corner place them back outside to frame your entryway with a warm tropical vibe.
Pygmy Date Palms have a textured brown trunk that leads up to an arched green crown. Each green frond arches over with an elegant curve. The fronds are covered with slender green leaf blades that pop against the palm’s dark trunk for a stunning color contrast.
If left unpruned Pygmy Date Palms will grow to be about 6 to 9 feet tall, and about 5 feet wide, making them a small medium sized tree in the landscape. With a little sunlight Pygmy Date Palms will grow without making a fuss to instantly bring the feel of island life to your landscape.
4. The Italian Cypress
For a tall, elegant tree perfect for framing your entryway look no further than the Italian Cypress. They quickly grow upwards about 3 feet per year to give your landscape a stunning and unique look.
They have an upright growth pattern with thick, dense foliage that doesn’t grow outward very far, giving them a narrow columnar shape. By growing up to 40 feet tall and 5 feet wide they get large enough to make a dramatic change in your landscape. Italian Cypress Trees will attract all eyes from around the neighborhood to your home, and you’ll most likely win yard of the month a few times with them.
However, if you don’t want a tree that reaches monstrous heights, don’t count out the Italian Cypress. It’s very low maintenance and easy to maintain. Simply trim your Italian Cypresses back to their desired height. Don’t worry about over doing it, theses evergreens respond very well to being pruned. Also, when planted in pots they stay smaller.
It doesn’t matter if they are kept big or small, either way they will grace the landscape with a Mediterranean charm that other evergreens can’t seem to pull off.
Other excellent columnar trees are the Sky Pencil Holly and the Slender Hinoki Cypress.
5. Sunset Glow Bamboo
Add luck and Zen to your landscape with Sunset Glow Bamboo. It has beautiful green leaves that pop against orange and yellow stalks, making it one of the more colorful types of bamboo.
This bamboo variety is a dwarf variety; it doesn’t grow as large or as aggressively as other types of bamboo. It only gets about 6 to 8 feet tall and 5 to 6 feet wide. Place it around your home and garden without the fear of it taking over.
Sunset Glow Bamboo is easy to manage and maintain and best of all it thrives in pots. Place your bamboo plants in pots and place them by the front door to give your home an oriental look with a sense of relaxation and calming.
Bamboo is tough, and doesn’t need a lot of maintenance to keep happy. With a little sunlight and water it will take off with an alluring look that will amaze your family and friends. Even your neighbors will admire its exotic beauty.
Frame It
To make your home even better frame the entryways with low maintenance plants that aren’t fussy about the amount of sunlight or water that they get. These plants can be placed in containers in little to no time to give your home an updated and attractive look.
As a gardener and plant enthusiast I’ve loved growing trees and shrubs my entire life. Unknown to most, there are always new faster fruiting and double blooming plant hybrids emerging on the scene. I often feel the need to share my plant knowledge and new trends with the growing gardening community through my blog!
Originally published at www.fast-growing-trees.com on January 27, 2016.
