Just because summer has ended doesn’t mean the blooms in your garden need to fade! These gorgeous evergreen shrubs will keep your garden colorful throughout the fall.
One of the most important premises of planning a garden is to ensure your garden has year-round interest. Consider evergreen shrubs and trees the pillars of your garden, which give it structure throughout the seasons. Evergreen shrubs that flower can add another layer of interest. While there are many popular evergreens that flower in the spring and summer, it can be more challenging to find evergreens that bloom in the fall.
Keep reading to learn about 6 evergreen shrubs that will brighten up your garden with fall blooms and tips to care for them.
Ideas for Fall-Blooming Evergreen Shrubs
Camellias
Here, in South Carolina, camellias start blooming around the end of September, and continue blooming through April. If a goal for your garden is color early in the season, select from one of the sasanqua cultivars.
In their native habitat, camellias grow as understory trees, so they will thrive in shade to partial sun. If you have a sunnier garden, you should select a sasanqua because they are generally more sun-tolerant than the japonicas. These beautiful bushes are slow-growing and long-lived. Once a camellia is well established, it requires little water and is fairly difficult to kill.
Camellias are versatile plants that can be pruned as a bush, a tree, or an espalier
The typical growing range for camellias is zones 7-9.
Azaleas
Azaleas are a well-known beacon of spring in the south. And, if you choose a reblooming variety for your garden, you can experience their brilliant color for a second time in the fall. My Encore azaleas start their second round of blooms in late August and are still blooming now, at the beginning of December (I live in zone 8 for reference).
Azaleas are a perfect evergreen plant to create dazzling flowering hedges. They can easily be pruned into a shape that fits your garden aesthetic. Once established, azaleas are drought tolerant, and can thrive in both sunny and shady gardens.
The typical growing range for azaleas is zones 6-9.
Viburnum
In my experience, hydrangeas do not do well in full sun here in zone 8. If you love the look of white, fluffy hydrangeas, but they don’t thrive in your sun-soaked, southern garden, try planting viburnum instead. Snowball viburnum are one of the more common varieties you’ll find in southern gardens. These hardy shrubs thrive in both full sun and light shade.
Viburnum are semi-evergreen or evergreen near the southern end of their range. Mine keep their leaves in the winter, but do not put out new growth again until the spring. Here, snowball viburnum share a flowering period with reblooming azaleas; both bloom March through June and August through December. They may bloom intermittently throughout the summer as well.
The typical range for snowball viburnums is zones 6-9. The viburnum genus encompasses over 150 species of flowering plants, with varying bloom times and hardiness ranges, so be sure to verify the variety you select is appropriate for your garden plan.
Tea Olives
Tea olives’ blooms may be tiny, but their heady, sweet scent will certainly remind you they are flowering. If a goal for your garden to add fragrance, tea olives are a great candidate. These evergreens are a wonderful option for creating privacy screens as well. In the right conditions, these plants can be rapid growers.
I have two Yinbi Shuanghui variegated tea olives that I planted in late April. One gets slightly more afternoon sun than the other and has grown at least a foot more than the other, even though they receive the same amount of water.
Tea olives may be grown in full sun or partial shade, and, once established, need very little water. Tea olives can bloom several times throughout the year, including the fall.
The typical range for tea olives is zones 8-10.
Gardenias
Gardenias are another beautifully scented, evergreen shrub that will bloom multiple times throughout the year, including autumn. These glossy, green plants thrive in full sun and high humidity. However, they are susceptible to cold damage if planted in exposed, sunny sites, in the northern end of their range. If your gardenia receives too much shade, it may not produce as many flowers and will lose its bushy habit.
My gardenias start blooming in April and continue blooming throughout the summer and fall.
Last year, South Carolina was hit by an unusually cold spell in December. My ‘August Beauty’ gardenias have still not fully recovered. However, my ‘Frostproof’ gardenias did not show any outward signs of damage.
The typical range for gardenias is zones 7-11.
Anise
Anise is a shade-loving, evergreen shrub that is native to the southeastern US. Its brilliant green leaves are a great way to add a pop of color to a shady garden. While this plant can tolerate some sun, it thrives in a shady environment. My anise that is planted in the shade has grown three times the size of the one that is planted 10 feet away, in the sun.
Anise are known to flower most prolifically in the spring, however, many will flower sporadically throughout the summer and fall as well.
The typical range for anise is zones 6-10.
Plant any of these 6 evergreen shrubs for beautiful fall blooms in your garden.
