Ideas for Foundational Plants for a Front Entryway

Criteria

• Foundation plants usually are evergreens, because they carry the design of the entryway garden through the winter, when more ephemeral plants are gone. Choose plants that will grow at a moderate rate to the height and width appropriate to the size of the border or planting bed, so you won't need to prune them much. Consider shrubs with fragrant flowers, colorful foliage and strong winter shape.

Conifers

• Dwarf conifers that reach less than 10 feet tall at maturity are a good choice as foundation plants. Some have colorful foliage, such as Wilma Goldcrest cypress or golden arborvitae. Mugo pine grows slowly in a neat mound shape to 10 feet tall, while globe green juniper matures at 4-by-4 feet. For a shady area, choose yews, white-tipped hemlocks or globe arborvitae.

Fragrance

• Evergreen shrubs with fragrant flowers include sweet box (Sarcococca ruscifolia), which perfumes the air in late winter. It has dark green, glossy foliage and grows 5-by-5 feet in shade or sun. Daphne, an old favorite, boasts attractive variegated foliage and fragrant blooms in February to March. It grows 4-by-4 feet. Osmanthus, which grows between 8 and 10 feet tall, blooms with small white fragrant flowers in early summer or fall.

Colorful Foliage

• Leucothoe has arching, red stems with glossy foliage for shade or part sun. The variety Rainbow has cream, green and red variegated leaves. A slow-growing shrub to 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide, Leucothoe bears drooping clusters of white flowers in spring. Gilt Edge silverberry (Eleagnus x ebbingei) grows 5-by-5 feet with shiny yellow foliage with a dark green center. The bush honeysuckles (Lonicera spp.) have colorful foliage as well as an open, irregular branching pattern that in attractive in all seasons.

Other Choices

• Traditional workhorse evergreens for front-yard foundation planting include boxwood, particularly Graham Blandy, an upright variety that reaches 9 feet tall but only 2 feet wide; Japanese hollies, which remain tidy and are suitable for hedges; and Euonymous varieties, which come in variegated white and variegated yellow and dark green.