Evergreens: Evergreen Trees - Evergreen Shrubs - Evergreen Plants

Evergreens of The World Information Resource 

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On the next pages you will find plenty of useful information, facts and "how to" articles and tips about growing and caring for many popular and unique evergreen trees, plants and shrubs.

Also, you will find sections on gardening topics, gardening tips, gardening tools, water gardens and outdoor living to compliment and enhance your experience of evergreens.

Here is an overview of all types of evergreens giving you a better understanding of what they are all about:

What is an evergreen? Evergreen plant characteristics:  Evergreens retain their leaves all year round as opposed to deciduous plants which lose all their foliage for a proportion of the year leaving them bare. Old leaves shed soon after the new leaves appear. Leaf persistence lasts for one to five years in some cases with the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine lasting up to forty-five years.

Evergreens provide wonderful year round interest whether in the countryside national parks of Sierra Nevada where magnificent Giant Sequoia grow or the humble dwarf conifers in your own garden. For the gardener, they also provide essential structure or 'bones' of garden design. Choosing the right evergreens will give you long-term enjoyment with the satisfaction of easy care. Choose the wrong evergreen and you will have a constant battle controlling its growth!

Why are there evergreen trees and deciduous trees? Deciduous trees drop their leaves for a specific reason which is typically self protection. This is a defense mechanism to a cold or dry season. Retaining leaves would become a liability by threatening the life of the plant.

Tropical evergreen plants - Vitally important for healthy air we all need!
The majority of tropical rainforest plants are evergreen. These plants replace their leaves throughout the year. When leaves age they become ineffective at supporting the plants life and so ultimately drop. All plant waste matter easily rots down in the rain forest, so providing essential growth nutrients for established and newly sprouted plants. As the rainforest is the home for many of the world's trees, it plays an essential role in filtering and cleaning about one fifth of all the air we breath. Millions of evergreen trees are being cut down and will never be grown again and so deforestation is contributing to air pollution.

In other areas where the seasons have a dry climate cycle, both evergreen and deciduous plants thrive, having adapted to their own environments successfully.

A warm temperate climate is best for evergreen plants to flourish
The majority of plants in a warm temperate climate are evergreen. Climate and conditions determine the success or failure of a plant to adapt. The ideal environment for evergreens to thrive will provide, warmth and stability, plus have a ready supply of water and adequate nutrients.

Cooler temperate climates have less evergreens                         Such areas produce an abundance of conifers as fewer evergreen broad leaf plants are able to tolerate severe cold when temperatures go down to -30 °C, -22 °F.

Seasonal climate evergreen plants adapted to survive
In regions with cold or dry seasons there are good survival reasons for a plant being deciduous. The existence of evergreen plants usually indicates an adaptation to low nutrient levels. Deciduous trees, for example, lose their nutrients whenever they drop their leaves. It is essential for the tree to replenish these lost nutrients from the soil so as to build new leaves and promote growth.

During times of extreme weather and poor nutrition, evergreens stand the best chance of survival 
In difficult times when hardly any nutrients are available, evergreen plants have a distinct survival advantage. Though their leaves and needles must be capable of withstanding cold including severe drought, they are less efficient at photosynthesis (The process used by green plants to turn the energy of sunlight into chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and also produces sugars that feed the plant).

In warmer climates with both poor soil and ground conditions, some evergreens such as pines and cypresses species grow very well.

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