12 Best Evergreen Trees and Plants for Virginia, Maryland, and DC

Evergreens don’t get enough credit.

Sure, everybody loves them at Christmas, bringing them inside for a rare treat and decking the halls with boughs of holly, but all year round, evergreen trees and plants are out in the landscape working super hard. 

“You can use evergreens in so many ways,” says Richard Sweeney, landscape architect at Level Green Landscaping. He’s about to tell us how.

What are the best evergreen trees and plants for your commercial property?
 
Sweeney shares a few of his favorites. 
You might want them all.

First, Why Are Evergreen Trees and Plants So Great?

Evergreen trees and plants are real multi-taskers, Sweeney says. 

They stay green throughout the seasons, so they offer great year-round interest in your landscape and a different texture than surrounding plants. When other plants die back in the winter, evergreens still look great. 

Some evergreens are great for smaller spaces, growing tall and skinny. 

Native evergreen trees and plants are hardy and less susceptible to pests and diseases. Once they’re established, they typically need less water than non-natives. 

Native evergreens are also a crucial part of the design Sweeney does for properties that require native plant rain gardens to help with stormwater management.  

Rain gardens, planted with deep-rooted native plants and grasses, encourage excess water to soak slowly into the ground instead of running off into nearby waterways. 

Sweeney often uses evergreens to create “green walls,” for living backdrops or dividers.
 
“You might have a park or a rooftop terrace or a dining area that needs areas separated,” he says. “When you plant several columnar evergreens root ball to root ball, you get a living wall.”

Evergreen trees and plants offer a great starting point for a landscape design, Sweeney says. He’s working on a townhouse complex now where each home has its own planting area in front. 

“I’ll add some tall vertical evergreen accents and some round evergreen anchors, then fill in the rest with colorful shrubs, perennials and ground covers,” he says. 

Check out a few of Sweeney’s favorite evergreen plants in Virginia, Maryland, and DC: 

1. Magnolia Grandiflora

Not all magnolias are evergreen, but this one is. It’ll knock your socks off every spring with those huge, spectacular, intoxicatingly fragrant white blossoms.

But it’s a workhorse year-round, offering glossy dark green leaves.

After the flowers fade, there’s another cool show: big cone-like clusters of rose-red seeds.

Use this beauty as a specimen or mixed in a border to form a screen.

Sweeney loves the ‘Little Gem’ variety for smaller spaces and cityscapes. 

Be aware it needs consistent moisture and full sun exposure to stay healthy, he notes. 

2. Japanese Cedar

Sweeney calls this evergreen tree “a super durable choice for the commercial landscape.”

It’s also the national tree of Japan, so it must be doing something right.
Sporting pretty blue-green foliage and interesting texture, it’s a smart choice to use as a screen or in a mixed border.

Its evergreen foliage often develops a bronze hue during cold months.

Love arborvitae, but hate how deer use it as a dinner buffet? This is a great alternative. Deer typically walk on by.

Sweeney likes ‘Globosa Nana’ as a great dwarf choice for smaller spots. Plant it in full sun and enjoy a great perk: no pruning necessary. 

3. Boxwood

Sweeney loves elegant, versatile boxwood. It’s one of his favorite evergreen plants for Virginia, Maryland, and DC. There’s so much to love about this classic evergreen. It’s great for foundation plantings, easy to prune, and offers impressive dark green foliage.
Boxwood can be pruned tight for a formal look or left unpruned for a more natural look.

The fun doesn’t stop there — you can pop boxwood in containers, too.

NewGen Freedom is a new cultivar Sweeney likes. It’s resistant to blight and is a great shade of medium green. 

4. Camellia 

Camellia is a flowering evergreen shrub with dark, glossy leaves and large, lush blossoms. 

They like partial shade and rich, moist, but well-drained soil. 

Sweeney especially likes the ‘Autumn Rocket’ cultivar, a dazzling beauty with crisp white, semi-double blooms in fall. It fits nicely in tight spaces, and blooms at a time of year when little else is flowering. It’s a great choice among evergreen plants for Virginia, Maryland, and DC.

5. Mahonia 

This densely textured evergreen shrub has leaves that look very similar to toothed holly leaves. 

Mahonia is a great choice for a shade garden, Sweeney says, but plant it where people won’t have up-close contact — its leaves are sharp. 

‘Soft Caress’ offers slender fern-like foliage that adds great texture to your shade landscape year-round.

Fragrant yellow flowers offer a pretty accent from fall through winter. It’s a great size, too, maturing at about three feet. It might be just what you need for a captivating low evergreen hedge.

6. Sedum ‘Angelina’

“People don’t think of evergreen when they think of sedums,” Sweeney says, “but this powerhouse groundcover stays green all year round.”

It’s a beauty among evergreen trees and plants. Fast-growing and colorful, 'Angelina' adds dazzle with colors from chartreuse to golden yellow. Easy to grow, it will spread quickly as a drought-tolerant groundcover. 

Bright yellow star-like flowers bloom in summer and the foliage turns orange in autumn. It’s a great pick for rock gardens or large expanses of ground. 

7. American Holly 

American holly is a native evergreen, which means it automatically gets bonus points among evergreen trees and plants. It tolerates wet soil and shade, Sweeney says, so pounce on this one if you struggle to grow great plants in these conditions. 

Its spiny dark green leaves and bright red berries automatically remind you of Christmas, but the great thing about this evergreen is it adds color and interest to your commercial property all year long. It also works great as a privacy screen or hedge.

8. Osmanthus 

Sweeney loves all varieties of this evergreen shrub, also called devilwood. Known for its powerfully fragrant scent, it has pretty clusters of tiny creamy white flowers. Then, its dense foliage and glossy leaves provide nice fall and winter interest, making it a standout among evergreen plants for Virginia, Maryland, and DC.

Bonus: it does well in clay and compacted soils. 

9. Eastern Red Cedar

You’ve seen Eastern red cedar — they’re everywhere from front yards to roadsides to
plenty of commercial properties, and for good reason. This native evergreen tree tolerates heat, wind, salt, a wide range of soils and other not-so-great conditions, making it one of the best evergreen trees for commercial properties. 

Use these dependable trees as windbreaks, hedges, screens, in clumps or as attractive specimen trees.

10. ‘Dragon Lady’ Holly

This one has a big name, but it’s great for a small space.

Unlike some other holly trees that get wide and need a lot of trimming, ‘Dragon Lady’ grows as high as 20 feet tall, but only four or five feet wide, meaning it fits into spots where other hollies won’t. And it doesn’t need trimming. Its pretty spiny leaves deter wildlife and trespassers, if you need those qualities.
 
It’s drought-resistant once established and will thrive in shade as well as sun.

11. Nandina ‘Gulf Stream’

This evergreen shrub goes way beyond green. You’ll love how it changes color throughout the year, offering something for every season.

Its leaves emerge in spring with a lovely bronze hue, then change to blue-green before turning orange and red in fall. As if that’s not enough, it produces pretty white blooms in spring and early summer.

Use it along walkways, as a low hedge, in a courtyard or in small groupings anywhere you need a stunning addition to your commercial property. 

12. ‘Sky Pencil’ Holly

This tall skinny holly tree with the fun name can get up to 10 feet in height but stays very narrow at 2-3 feet wide. 

It’s great as a vertical accent, Sweeney says, grows fast and is low maintenance. Its small glossy leaves emerge light green but darken with age. 

Maintenance Needs for Evergreen Plants in Virginia, Maryland, and DC

Native evergreens like American holly and Eastern red cedar need little to no maintenance, Sweeney says, as they’re perfectly acclimated to this area.

Others, like magnolia and boxwood, need burlap for winter protection if they’re planted in areas exposed to winter chill.

A few pesky pests can cause problems for evergreens, damaging their leaves and needles, including aphids, spider mites, whiteflies, and scale, so integrated pest control is important for evergreen trees and plants in Virginia, Maryland, and DC.

In general, evergreen trees and plants have the same key needs as other trees and plants: water, fertilizer, mulch to retain soil moisture, and occasional pruning for health and appearance. 

But don’t go overboard with pruning, Sweeney advises. 

“Selective pruning is best,” he says. “The Level Green crews are really good at this.” 

Ready to Add Intriguing Evergreens? Trust Level Green

You can’t go wrong with versatile, hardworking evergreen trees and plants on your commercial property, from the towering ‘Sky Pencil’ Holly to the spectacular creeping ‘Angelina’ sedum.

Need winter interest? A lush green dividing screen? The perfect specimen for a skinny space? A dependable backdrop for an intriguing garden bed?

Done, done, done and done. 

Sweeney knows the best evergreen trees and plants for your commercial landscaping in Virginia, Maryland, and DC. He’d love to suggest the perfect year-round beauties for you.

If you’re not already a Level Green Landscaping client, we’d love to add you to our growing list of happy customers.

Our focus is on commercial properties like offices, mixed-use sites, HOAs, municipalities and institutions in Maryland, Washington DC and parts of Virginia.Contact us at 202-544-0968. You can also request a free consultation online to meet with us one-on-one.

We’d love to hear from you.

Image sources: Magnolia Grandiflora, Japanese Cedar, Boxwood, Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’, Sedum 'Angelina, Osmanthus, Eastern Red Cedar, Dragon Lady Holly, Nandina Gulf Stream, Sky Pencil Holly