Brighten Up Dark Spaces with These 15 Stunning Evergreen Trees

Sunny gardens are easy to fill with lush leaves and colorful blooms; shady ones a bit less, especially in winter! And if you want a tree for texture, structure and foliage all year round, but you have little sunlight… You may think it is a big problem! But it isn’t, really… There are varieties that tolerate shade, and even love it, and at the same time, they are evergreen!

And I am not just talking about conifers or temperate looking trees; there are exotic ones as well, like palms! A shady garden does not need to be a barren one! And when we say evergreen, we also mean leaves with other colors, like blue, or turning red, or variegated…

So, give life to your garden all year round, with green foliage full of life, stunning flowers and even fruits! There are some really wonderful shade tolerant evergreen trees waiting for you – and quite a few surprises as well!

All evergreen, all beautiful and all shade tolerant, these trees range a lot in personality, though, and we can start our selection with a very festive variety indeed!

1. American Holly (Ilex opaca)

American holly is a Christmas classic and aery decorative evergreen tree that grows well in partial shade. In fact, despite light being little, its glossy, somewhat leathery and spiky leaves will keep their deep green color all through the year! But winter is really when this pyramidal native of the US is at its best…

In fact, its branches will fill with the famous red and shiny round berries that we all recognize, because they bring a touch of vibrant energy as well as a symbol of prosperity and life during the festive season. They will last a long time, assuming that birds don’t eat them all too fast.

Even so, the little winged visitors to your garden will add a spark of joy and happiness through the cold season. It is also a flowering plant, with little greenish white blooms that come in spring, to announce the new season to you, your family and pollinators.

Easy to grow and healthy by nature, American holly can work well as a specimen tree or in groups, in hedges and even as foundation planting to keep your garden festive and evergreen all year round.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 5 to 10.
• Light exposure: full Sun, light shade, dappled shade and partial shade.,
• Flowering season: spring.
• Size: 15 to 30 feet tall (4.5 to 9.0 meters) and 10 to 20 feet in spread (3.0 to 6.0 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: deep, average fertile and well drained, consistently humid loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from strongly acidic to neutral. It is heavy clay tolerant.

2. Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)

There are quite a few magnolia trees that grow well in shady gardens, but we picked an evergreen variety to give you an example of one of the best. Southern magnolia is native of North America and its scientific name, “grandiflora” has a meaning that explains our choice: big flowered! And in fact, its blossoms are magnificent, at 8 inches across (20 cm), very fragrant and with the softest cram white color ever.

The petals are spoon shaped but quite wide, and there is more… This stunning beauty will bloom in spring, and then again in summer and then fall! The leaves can be 10 inches long (25 cm), they are leathery, very glossy and deep green on the upper page, but velvety and bronze underneath… They will also show you some copper tonalities when they emerge. The seedpods, that look like cones, have bright red seeds, and they are very decorative too!

A large species in this genus, southern magnolia is one of the best varieties for showy and long lasting floral displays and impressive foliage all year round, and it is ideal as a specimen plant in most garden styles, including oriental and formal ones.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 7 to 10.
• Light exposure: full Sun, light shade, dappled shade and partial shade.
• Flowering season: spring, summer and fall.
• Size: 60 to 80 feet tall (18 to 24 meters) and 30 to 50 feet in spread (9.0 to 15 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: deep, fertile and organically rich, well drained and evenly humid loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to neutral, but it tolerates mildly alkaline soils too.

3. Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)

Very elegant, eastern hemlock is yet another native tree from North America that will give you evergreen foliage all year round, and with great decorative value. Of course, the texture is sublimely fine, with dense needles that are green, but they also have two stripes on the under sides, and this gives them a glittering effect.

They grow packed on long and arching branches, with a soft descending habit, almost weeping. The pyramidal shape of the crown is excellent for structure in shady gardens, while the brown and pendant cones that it bears through the winter months are common in Christmas decorations. Add an upright and straight trunk with deep furrows and an amazing purplish gray color, and you will see why you should want it on your land…

And ideal evergreen nesting tree, southern hemlock is actually low maintenance, and you can grow it in informal gardens both as a specimen or to add an interesting shape to groups of trees, even in cold regions.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 3 to 7.
• Light exposure: full Sun, light shade, dappled shade, and partial shade.
• Flowering season: N/A, conifer.
• Size: 40 to 70 feet tall (12 to 21 meters tall) and 25 to 35 feet in spread (7.5 to 10.5 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: deep, fertile and humus rich, well drained and medium humid loam or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to neutral.

4. Himalayan Strawberry Tree (Cornus capitata)

I promised exotic looking varieties for shade and here is the first: Himalayan strawberry tree, or evergreen dogwood. The leaves are rich green and elliptical in shape, fairly glossy and arched; they form a lovely, low and spreading evergreen crown if you grow it as a tree, but also as a shrub. Depending on the climate, these can also take on purple and red tonalities in fall. But this is also a stunning flowering plant!

The blooms are large, with round cram like bracts that look like petals, four of them, and very showy all through their display in early and mid summer. However, its name comes from another special trait of this species from China… The floral display is followed by the fruiting season, and the bright red berries that follow, dangling from the branches, look like large strawberries! And they are not a snare: you can eat them too, as will birds!

Ideal for exotic gardens but also any informal landscaping design, evergreen strawberry tree will offer you intriguing changes throughout the year and interest in all the four seasons, as a specimen plant or in shrubs and borders, and it likes to grow in the shade of taller trees.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 8 to 9.
• Light exposure: full Sun, light shade, dappled shade and partial shade.
• Flowering season: early and mid summer.
• Size: 20 to 40 feet tall and in spread (6.0 to 12 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: deep, fertile and organically rich, well drained and medium humid loam, clay or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to neutral.

5. Irish Yew (Taxus baccata)

Irish yew is one of those rare conifer evergreens that will grow even in full shade! A shrub or tree, according to how you train it and the variety, it can be small or medium sized, but it always has finely textured needle like foliage. This can be deep green, but there ate cultivars in blue and gold too!

Equally important for gardening use, the many cultivars can have different shapes, from the columnar ‘Standishii’ with blond highlights, the conical to needle like ‘Fastigata’, to low lying bush like but almost turquoise ‘Repandens’ – all winners of the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society! But the distinctive trait of this European native are its bright red cones, that look like beads, or cups with a hole in the middle.

An easy to grow and really shade loving conifer, Irish yew is by far one of the best evergreen trees (or shrubs) for most garden styles, as a foundation plant, in groups, for hedges and screens, and even for foundation planting – take your pick!

• Hardiness: USDA zones 6 to 8.
• Light exposure: full Sun, light shade, dappled shade, partial shade and full shade.
• Flowering season: N/A, conifer.
• Size: 3 to 25 feet tall (90 cm to 7.5 meters) and 3 to 10 feet in spread (90 cm to 3.0 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: average fertile and well drained, evenly humid loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline.

6. Bismarck Palm (Bismarckia nobilis)

Like most species from Madagascar, Bismarck palm is extraordinarily exotic looking, but it will grow well in shady spots in your garden as well! Where to start… The silver blue fan shaped leaves that arch in the roundish crown are like sculptures! The blade like leaflets form structures that are simply jaw dropping, and the unusual coloring adds to the effect! And each can be a whopping 4 feet wide (120 cm)!

Arching panicles of brownish flowers will literally explode under these amazing fronds in spring and summer, and then the fruits will follow, first greenish, then darkening to brown tonalities when they ripen. But the upright trunk is no less spectacular! The dried up remains of the big petioles remain on it, and they overlap in a very regular pattern, like plaited, like in a huge wicker basket!

One of the most spectacular trees you can ever grow in a shady garden, Bismarck palm will need center stage in your garden; grow it as a specimen plant, even near bigger varieties, or it will certainly steal the show anyway!

• Hardiness: USDA zones 10 to 11.
• Light exposure: full Sun, light shade, dappled shade and partial shade.
• Flowering season: spring and summer.
• Size: 40 to 70 feet tall (12 to 21 meters) and 10 to 15 feet in spread (3.0 to 4.5 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: deep, well drained and lightly humid to dry loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline. It is drought tolerant.

7. White Fir (Abies concolor)

White fir is an evergreen tree from North America with lots to offer to your shady garden. Like other Abies species, it will tolerate lack of sunlight quite well, because they come from dense forests where they need to compete with taller specimens. Famous for its silver whitish needles, quite dense on the elegant branches, and conical to pyramidal shape, you also get a lot of cultivars to grow on your land.

From tallish (50 feet maximum, or 15 meters – it is not a giant conifer), to really small (like the tiny ‘Pigglemee’, only a foot tall – or 30 cm – more suitable as ground cover…). Or you could go for the small ‘Hosta la Vista’ with its arching branches and “natural bonsai” appearance. All will produce beautiful elongated cones, in shades of bluish or soft green, which will then ripen to papery bee hive structures of golden chestnut brown.

The wide range of varieties you get from the mother species Abies concolor, means that white fir can be an evergreen tree with many functions in your garden – literally from specimen plant to ground cover, via hedges and even borders or foundation planting…

• Hardiness: USDA zones 3 to 7.
• Light exposure: full Sun, light shade, dappled shade and partial shade.
• Flowering season: N/A, conifer.
• Size: 1 to 50 feet tall (30 cm to 15 meters) and 2 to 25 feet in spread (60 cm to 7.5 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: shallow to deep according to the variety, fertile and organically rich, well drained and medium humid loam, clay or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to neutral. It is drought tolerant once established.

8. Lady Palm (Rhapis excelsa)

If you want a tropical evergreen tree and you have to face even full shade conditions, don’t despair! Lady palm will thrive even in very shady spots, and it is quite an exotic beauty – and winner of the prestigious Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society as well… Its fan shaped frond like leaves have many long, grass blade like leaflets of a rich and glossy emerald green color, and they form lovely tufts that stay fresh all year round!

Each can be about 20 inches across (or 50 cm). Spring will see it blossom, with clusters of small reddish golden blooms, that grow from the top of the plant, just under the foliage. Little fruits will follow, and change in color from yellowish to orange and red. As it becomes taller and taller, you will also be able to appreciate its beautiful bamboo like and upright stem.

As an accent or specimen plant, lady palm can really solve lots of problems in a shady garden, not just with its decorative evergreen foliage, but blooms and fruits, and it can add a really exotic touch even when sunlight is very scarce indeed!

• Hardiness: USDA zones 9 to 11.
• Light exposure: dappled shade, partial shade and full shade.
• Flowering season: spring.
• Size: 6 to 15 feet tall or in spread (1.8 to 4.5 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: medium fertile and well drained, lightly humid to dry loam based soil with pH from mildly acidic to neutral. It is drought tolerant.

9. ‘Ferox Argentea’ English Holly (Ilex aquifolium ‘Ferox Argentea’)

We could have picked any English holly for your shady garden, but a specific cultivar, really stands out! And it is not just because it has won the most important gardening prize in the world, the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society… Just look at its amazing spiky foliage… The edges have a warm and decided cream color, while the middle parts have a dark forest green tonality, which shines with bluish overtones in the light.

And, being very glossy indeed, like polished, literally, the leaves to glisten a lot, all year round. It will also bless you with abundant white flowers in spring, which will tuen into lovely and shiny red bearrors, loved by birds but also for Christmas decorations. Regarded as a shrub by some, it has one or a few trunks, like all other trees, quite upright and straight.

The amazing mix of bright colors and glossy displays of ‘Ferox Argentea English holly is a massive asset for any garden, and being shade tolerant, it can bring you light all year round, as a specimen, in foundation planting but also in tall hedges and screens.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 6 to 10.
• Light exposure: full Sun, light shade, dappled shade and partial shade.
• Flowering season: spring.
• Size: 15 to 25 feet tall (4.5 to 7.5 meters) and 8 to 10 feet in spread (2.4 to 3.0 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: deep and average fertile, well drained and medium humid to dry loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline. It is drought and salt tolerant.

10. Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco)

If cold winters are not a problem in your region, but you want a stunning tree in your shady garden, you could even afford to grow dragon tree! This African and slow growing native is a really quirky species… Its large, swollen trunks covered in paper like bark weep with a crimson red sap when cut, hence the name…

They then split into straight and equally plump branches that form a thick ceiling above your head, and, on top of it… Rosettes of succulent looking blade like leaves form a full carpet, like a lawn in the sky, with their amazing bluish green color. It looks like a massive toadstool as a whole, thanks to its flattened dome shaped crown. When this evergreen tree matures, it will produce summer blossoms with whitish green flowers, which then turn into very ornamental orange berries.

Dragon tree is ideal for a Mediterranean, coastal or exotic looking garden, and its very unusual personality males it ideal as a specimen plant, even under taller varieties, where it will thrive just as well in their dappled shade.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 9 to 12.
• Light exposure: full Sun, light shade, dappled shade and partial shade.
• Flowering season: summer.
• Size: 15 to 25 feet tall and in spread (4.5 to 7.5 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: well drained, lightly humid to dry loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with ph from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline. It is drought and salt tolerant.

11. Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina)

Well known by its scientific name, Ficus benjamina, you will think of weeping fig as a houseplant, but if you live in a warm country, you will see it grow outdoors and thrive in shady spots! We all recognize it by its pointed and drooping leaves, glossy and with a a color that ranges from bright to deep green, or emerald, and it is an evergreen variety – and not just indoors.

The foliage may thin over the winter season, but most will stay on. And you get another benefit if you grow it in your garden, something you will very hardly see indoors… It jay actually even fruit, with figs that start off as reddish and then they ripen purplish black. It may even add aerial roots to the elegance of its thin and pale brown branches and trunk, or trunks, and it can grow much bigger in open spaces, even if sunlight is scarce.

Weeping fig is also a good garden variety of evergreen trees if you grow it in containers (where it will stay smaller), and this may allow you to have this winner of the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society in your yard even if winters get a bit too cold for its liking…

• Hardiness: USDA zones 10 to 12.
• Light exposure: full Sun, light shade, dappled shade and partial shade.
• Flowering season: late winter and early spring, inconspicuous.
• Size: 40 to 50 feet tall (12 to 15 meters) and 25 to 35 feet in spread (7.5 to 10.5 meters) outdoors.
• Soil and water requirements: fertile and humus rich, well drained and evenly humid to dry loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline. It is drought tolerant.

12. Wheel Tree (Trochodendron aralioides)

If you are looking for an unusual and very special tree for a shady spot in your garden, consider growing evergreen green tree. It is very unusual indeed, because it is the only species left of an otherwise extinct genus! Its leaves are bright green, gummy in texture and quite big, pointed and elliptical, and they hang beautifully with strong petioles forming rosette like groups.

When they emerge, they have orange blushes at the tips, which exalt the gently teethed (or serrated) edges of the fleshy and glossy foliage. It will bloom in spring and summer with clusters of little lime colored flowers at the tips of the branches, flat with petals that look like the spokes of a bicycle… They are actually pale green in the center but they brighten up to yellow towards the ends.

These will then turn into interesting seed capsules in shades of bluish or pinkish tonalities, before they ripen to brown and open… Despite its very exotic appearance, it is actually fairly cold hardy!

Beautiful, exotic and rare looking, wheel tree is ideal for a shady garden of you want it to express your own originality, best used as a specimen plant. It can definitely work well in a tropical, coastal, Mediterranean and – let us not forget – oriental gardening style. In fact, it comes from Asia…

• Hardiness: USDA zones 6 to 8.
• Light exposure: full Sun (tolerant), light shade, dappled shade and partial shade.
• Flowering season: spring and summer.
• Size: 10 to 20 feet tall and in spread (3.0 to 6.0 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: fertile and humus rich, well drained and medium humid loam based soil with pH from strongly acidic to mildly alkaline. It is wet soil tolerant.

13. Orange Tree (Citrus x sinensis)

And there’s a sunny surprise for you as well… Yes, we associate oranges with Sun kissed countries like Italy, Spain, Greece and Turkey… And we all believe they need a lot of sunlight… But it is exactly by traveling around the Mediterranean that you can discover that things are not really as we think… With the new agricultural practice of food forests, the small evergreen trees of oranges (and other citrus varieties) have found their way under the canopies of taller trees like walnuts and olives.

And they grow perfectly well there! They will also fruit, and in fact they already grow their juicy and Vitamin C rich gifts in the shade of their own foliage… Their leaves are in very dense, quite big, elliptical and pointed, bright green, tough and semi glossy. It is also a great flowering tree, with lovely white, star shaped and scented blooms, which usually come in winter, but you can see them on the branches all year round.

You will also see a cylindrical crown in the middle, produced by the upright, straight and snow colored stamens that stick close together, with golden anthers at the top. Italians have a special name for them: “zagare”, and they are symbolic of purity, eternal love and good luck… This explains why they are traditional at weddings.

If you prefer lemons to oranges, you can literally take your pick! These evergreen trees are a must in any Mediterranean style garden, even if overshadowed by buildings, walls and other trees, though they do prefer sunny positions. Despite what you may think, they are easy to grow and there are also dwarf varieties for small gardens and terraces you can choose from.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 9 to 11.
• Light exposure: full Sun, light shade, dappled shade and partial shade.
• Flowering season: mainly in winter but all year round.
• Size: 5 to 25 feet tall (1.5 to 7.5 meters), and 5 to 16.5 feet in spread (1.5 to 5.0 meters), though most stay within 15 feet in height and width (45 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: average fertile, well drained and medium humid with regular watering loam, clay or sand based soil withH from moderately acidic to neutral.

14. Texas Mountain Laurel (Sophora secudifolia)

Also called mescal bean, Texas mountain laurel is not in the same genus as the more famous, equally evergreen, shrub that shares part of its name. In fact, Sophora secundifolia, as botanists call it, can be both a large woody bush or a small tree, and it is easy to train as one. Just cut any low branches that compete with the main trunk or trunks you choose, and it will do all the rest, gracing your garden even if it is shady and lacking sunlight.

It is rally stunning! To start with, its flowers are enchanting! They will come in spring in large and dense pendulous clusters, each looking like a cockle shell, or a sweet pea blossom in some ways. But look at them from a distance and you may mistake it with a wisteria! Abundant and very fragrant, they may also deceive you with their vibrant lavender violet blue!

They are usually called grape bubblegum or also grape soda – that should give you a hint! Butterflies and pollinators love them, and they turn into amazing looking, large and velvety seed pods with a pointed tip and a cream brown to pinkish color! These will stay on till fall, whole the foliage will last all through the winter season… Pinnate and semi glossy, olive to forest green in color, with many roughly ovate and fairly leathery leaflets, the leaves arch from the branches like fronds, with a semi glossy sheen as well!

Beautiful but easy to grow, Texas mountain laurel can be a great choice for a shady garden with the extra touch… It is at its best in dry looking gardens, even xeriscape, like coastal and Mediterranean yards… You can grow it as a specimen plant, but also in tall hedges or in foundation planting next to your home.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 7 to 10.
• Light exposure: full Sun, light shade, dappled shade and partial shade.
• Flowering season: spring.
• Size: 15 to 25 feet tall (4.5 to 7.5 meters) and 8 to 10 inches in spread (2.4 to 3.0 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: average fertile, well drained and medium humid to dry loam, clay or sand based soil with pH from neutral to mildly alkaline. It is drought and rocky soil tolerant.

15. Avocado Tree (Persea americana)

And we conclude with another surprise, and quite a useful one… Avocado trees are evergreen and they thrive in shady gardens! While they can grow quite tall for us, they originate from humid lowlands and forests of Central America, where there are much taller varieties that overshadow them. Of course, it owes its popularity to its very nutritious and nut flavored fruits, but it is also a decorative species!

The leaves are broad, elliptical, with soft or sharp tips, of a very rich tonality of green, darker on the upper page, and fairly glossy as well. They grow all year round on the branches, forming a lovely and dense roughly oval or round crown, atop a grayish straight or sometimes slightly bending trunk.

The clusters of tiny flowers come in late winter or early spring, filling with star shaped and waxy blooms in delicate tonalities of off white, cream, yellow and sometimes greenish as well. Of course, they will then turn into the pear shaped avocados we love to eat, dangling their shiny peels in green and the dark brownish purple above our heads.

Avocado trees are great protagonists in food forests, thanks to their shade tolerance, and ability to ripen in poorly lit areas. Of course, they are ideal for exotic looking gardens, but they would suit other styles as well, including oriental and Mediterranean designs.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 9 to 11.
• Light exposure: full Sun, light shade, dappled shade and partial shade.
• Flowering season: late winter and early spring, sometimes again in summer.
• Size: 30 to 60 feet tall (9.0 to 18 meters) and 15 to 30 feet in spread (4.5 to 9.0 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: fertile and organically rich, well drained and constantly medium humid loam or sand based soil with pH from strongly acidic to neutral. Give it plenty of water when young, till it establishes itself.

Evergreen Trees for Shady Gardens

As I said, there are really many more shade tolerant and evergreen trees than conifers you can grow in your garden. From palms to exotic strawberry trees, flowering and even fruiting, you can really turn that poorly lit corner in your garden into a lush, even exotic place if you wish – and the choice you have is quite large!