Evergreen Shrubs at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

Evergreen shrubs are clothed in leaves throughout the year, with old leaves continually falling off and new ones being formed. Once established, these shrubs need no more pruning than cutting out weak, diseased and straggly shoots in spring. Never prune evergreen shrubs in winter, as any young shoots that subsequently develop could be blackened and damaged.

Several shrubs, both evergreen and deciduous, are well adapted for holding banks. Some may be grown without pruning, other than, occasional removal of dead or misplaced branches, or may be sheared regularly to a table-top flatness parallel with the bank. The severity of the latter treatment has much to recommend it in formal areas. It necessitates a little work, but clipping (especially with electric hedge shears) once or twice a season is much less arduous than maintaining grass. Drooping or weeping shrubs such as Forsythia sus-pensa, winter-flowering jasmine (Jas-minum nudiflorum) and the evergreen yew, (Taxus baccata repandens) are excellent for planting on banks and need no regular pruning.

In addition to the hardy hybrid rhododendrons there are a great many other kinds which are excellent garden shrubs, all evergreen and all disliking chalk or lime. They succeed best in loamy or peaty soils and though some will grow in full sun most prefer a partially shaded place. Many are first-class shrubs for planting in thin woodland.