Large Evergreen Shrubs for Zone 4

Tall Juniper Shrubs

• Among the junipers, the Chinese juniper comes in many tall cultivars, including Fairview, Blue Alps, Spartan and Robusta Green. The red cedar, despite its name, is a form of juniper, with tall forms like Hetzii suitable for USDA zone 4. The foliage on Blue Alps is bluish green, giving this shrub winter interest. Use it along foundations, recommends the Missouri Botanical Garden. Juniper shrubs tolerate an array of soil conditions, and these plants also grow well in urban areas, where pollution often curtails the growth of other shrubs.

Tall Spruce Shrubs

• Hillside Upright is a narrow, tall evergreen spruce shrub, growing to between 10 and 20 feet high. The shrub takes about 10 years to grow from 5 to 10 feet high. Hillside Upright works well in group plantings, partly because of its dark green needles. Colorado spruce cultivars Fat Albert and Baby Blueyes grow to 15 and 20 feet respectively. Both feature the blue-tinted needles of the parent species that permit them to stand as a centerpiece of a landscape as a specimen plant.

Tall PIne Shrubs

• Umbraculifera is a form of the Japanese red pine featuring an umbrella-like shape. It is appropriate for a USDA zone 4 landscape, producing many cones and having orange-red bark as it grows as tall as 20 feet. Globosa is a rounded form of this tree. The shrub has a slow rate of growth, but eventually develops to between 12 and 15 feet tall. Watereri is a 10- to 20-foot high Scotch pine cultivar with blue-green needles. The cool summer weather in zone 4 fits this shrub just fine.

Other Tall Evergreen Shrubs

• Holmstrup, Sunkist and Sherwood Frost are three tall American arborvitae shrubs, each growing to the 10-foot high range. Sherwood Frost is a handsome cultivar, possessing variegated foliage of green and white, making the leaves appear frosted in the sun. Tall yew shrubs include Smokestack, Nigra and Citation. Emerald Fountain and Geneva are tall shrub/small tree types of the Canadian hemlock that easily handle zone 4 cold. Use Filicoides, a cultivar of the hinoki cypress growing to 20 feet, along the edges of rock gardens.