Good Wood Chips for Mulch

Best Color Retention: Cypress Wood Chips

• Wood chips take a lot of abuse when it comes to environmental exposure. Regular irrigation washes their colors out, the sun's hot ultraviolet rays bleach the colors and a host of other degradation processes create additional fading. When you're using wood chips as an ornamental mulch, such as on your flower beds or as a cover for a walking path, color retention likely ranks as one of the most important characteristics of your mulching choice. When it comes to common wood chip varieties, cypress wood chips present the least color change when measured after one year and two years. In contrast, eucalyptus wood chips experience some of the greatest color changes and fading, turning from a light reddish-brown to a light gray in just nine months.

Best Insect Repellant: Cedar Wood Chips

• Cedar wood chips are praised not just for their rich, brown color but also for the fresh, woody scent they add to backyard environments. That scent doesn't just tickle your nose, but it can actually drive away insects. Cedar wood chips, when used as a wood mulch, can help repel cockroaches, termites and some kinds of beetles, ants and moths.

Longest Lasting: Melaleuca Wood Chips

• Wood chip mulches have a tendency to settle, flattening out and decomposing so you need to constantly apply new layers of wood chips. When it comes to settling and longevity, melaleuca wood chips are superior to other kinds of wood chips, according to the University of Florida. They were the least-settling, longest-lasting wood chips over both a one-year and two-year period. They're also one of the longest-lasting when it comes to color retention, retaining a level of color even after 24 months of outdoor exposure.

Exemplary Color Retention: Pine Bark Wood Chips

• After cypress wood chips, pine bark chips are among the best wood chip options for ornamental purposes due to their color retention. Starting off with a dark red-brown hue, the wood chips retain their brownish cast through nine months of exposure and still contain traces of red and pink after two years of exposure.