A Four-Season Border with Evergreen Conifers and Japanese Maples

Prized for their brilliant fall foliage, in glorious shades of red, yellow, and orange, Japanese maples are ravishing four-season trees. While a single Japanese maple can provide a striking focal point, when combined with other maples of different graceful habits, elegantly cut leaves, and extraordinarily colorful foliage, the effect is spectacular. If you add a few evergreen shrubs, trees, or herbaceous plants, your garden becomes a place of outstanding beauty all year long.

In this stunning garden border, a few Japanese maples have been carefully selected. Most are famed for the dramatic effect they bring to the garden, such as ‘Bloodgood’, ‘Viridis’, and ‘Sango-Kaku’. The eye can never pass lightly over the dazzling color presented by their flaming foliage across seasons or the graceful outlines of their brilliant twigs and branches.

They are interplanted with popular blue evergreen conifers, such as Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca’ (Atlas Cedar), Cupressus arizonica var. glabra ‘Blue Ice’ (Smooth Arizona Cypress), or Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’ (Flaky Juniper). Rich with many shapes and habits, their cooler powder blue foliage tones down the gold and crimson foliage of the maples.

Fairly easy to replicate, this planting includes top-performing plants which have been awarded prestigious awards. Enjoy a glorious and colorful spectacle from spring to winter!