The Pacific Northwest is known for its greenery year-round, and part of that is from evergreen trees—a shrub or tree that keeps its leaves or needles in the autumn and winter. These can include conifers, such as what you’d expect in a pine tree, or a broad-leaf evergreen, such as a madrone or magnolia tree. If you’re looking for that extra green after your other deciduous trees lose their leaves, an evergreen is an excellent tree for your yard. Even better, they come in many shapes and sizes, so you have a wide variety to choose from.
However, choosing the right tree is very important. If you plant the wrong one, it can be a costly headache. Maybe it’ll grow too tall and interfere with utility lines overhead (or gas lines underground). Maybe it will require more (or less) sun and water and more maintenance than you expected. Maybe it will be too big for the space you’ve allotted for it. But if you make sure to do your homework beforehand, you’ll find the exact right evergreen trees for your Oregon yard. In case you don’t have much knowledge about gardening and such stuff you can try Madera tree maintenance services to help you out for planting best tress. Here are five we’d like to suggest:
Atlas Cedar
Another name of this majestic tree is the African conifer. It originates in the Atlas Mountains in North Africa and is tolerant of dry and hot conditions, which is unusual among conifers. As a young tree, it will have a pyramidal shape but can grow very large and will branch out into a spreading shape similar to an oak tree.
An Atlas cedar requires a lot of space and can grow as tall as 40 to 60 feet, and its canopy can spread as wide as 30 or 40 feet. The needles are blue-green. Male cones are dark brown, and female cones are purplish. If you’re located in a warmer climate with moderate annual rainfall and have space, this is the tree for you, and it will last for years to come.
Madrone
This is one of the trees you think of when someone mentions trees in the northwest, especially along the coast. Characteristics include the reddish bark that peels away from its tan trunk and its leathery evergreen leaves. Close up, you’ll notice it has whiteish flowers and reddish-orange berries.
The upkeep for this tree is a little higher—it tends to shed the bark fragments, flowers, and berries, especially in the summer—but most gardeners are willing to overlook it in return for its beauty and hardiness once it has been established. The solution to that is simply to plant your madrones in an area where they don’t need to be manicured regularly.
The tree itself is happiest in arid, rocky places where other trees might struggle. The best thing you can do for it is help it to get established and then water it deeply and infrequently. The difficulty here is transplanting it. You’ll want to buy the youngest seedlings you can find and plant more than you think you need.
Engelmann Spruce
A popular tree harvested for lumber (such as for poles, railroad ties, mine props, and musical instruments), it is sometimes difficult to get to it since the tallest ones tend to grow in out-of-the-way places. It likes to grow in cold elevations that get snowpack every winter or in creek bottoms where the cold air gets trapped.
We’ve included it here because instead of being wide and spreading like the Atlas cedar and the madrone, the Engelmann spruce is rather tall and skinny. It averages about 30 inches in diameter and can grow as tall as 90 feet. You can also enjoy it for a long time—150 years or longer!
This tree will be pyramidal, and the branches will droop toward the ground. It is a shade-tolerant tree. You can also expect animals to enjoy its presence: small mammals and birds enjoy its seeds and those wide branches are good, warm cover for deer, elk, moose, and other large animals.
Junipers
Here’s a smaller tree for your yard if you find yourself squeezed for space. There are three kinds of junipers that grow in Oregon.
The western juniper is more commonly found in central and eastern Oregon since it has adapted to drier conditions. The common juniper is low and spreading, more like a shrub than a tree but good for screens and hedges if you’re looking for something to act as a barrier to sound, dust, or wind. Finally, there’s the Rocky Mountain juniper, which is taller and has a shape that’s more like a tree.
Junipers all have that lovely fresh pine smell, and it attracts birds and squirrels, which eat the berries (actually, tiny cones that contain the seeds of the plant). Native Americans used the boughs and berries for various dishes and medicines and burned bundles of the branches as a way to cleanse the air.
There are some modern uses for it too. Common juniper berries are used in making gin. The trunks of junipers make nearly indestructible fenceposts—in fact, there is a barn built in the 1870s that is still standing on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge that used juniper lumber in its construction.
Wax Myrtle
The wax myrtle is another good plant if you have a smaller space. It’s a fast-growing and versatile plant. It can live in poor soil, is tolerant of pruning, and only requires full sun. It can grow quickly to 15 or 20 feet high and wide and is also a great hedge plant since it can be trimmed or pruned to shape with little to no ill effect.
There are many varieties of this plant, which includes shrubs and tree shapes. All of them have upright stems, with leaves that are dark green on top and light green below. Flowers are often yellow-green or reddish depending on sun exposure and bloom in the spring. Plants may be bisexual and grow in both pistillate and staminate forms on one plant.
Remember, if you have questions about which tree might work best for your yard, we would love to give you some advice. Contact us today at Mr. Tree Service for all of your tree needs.
David Johnson is a versatile content writer known for his ability to breathe life into words and create engaging narratives on diverse subjects. With a passion for effective storytelling and a keen eye for detail, David crafts content that resonates with readers and sparks their curiosity. He is dedicated to delivering high-quality, informative, and enjoyable content, making him a respected voice in the digital landscape. Beyond the keyboard, David enjoys exploring the outdoors, immersing himself in literature, and finding inspiration in everyday experiences.
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