I have two Aucuba & schip (pronounced skip)Laurel

Aucuba

I have had very good luck with aucuba (gold dust plant). 5-6 feet tall. Verigated leatherlike foliage. Red berries on female plants all winter. Does well in the heat and dry shade. No fuss no muss. Not a scrap of work. Easy to transplant and not fussy about it, if you take an adequate root ball.

seeds itself to create expanding stands of aucuba.

downsides:

Not really happy with full sun, though.

In the coldest winters---single digits---the tops of plants will die back 6-9 inches. Most winters the odd branch and a few leaves will die back.

Notes:

Birds hang out in mine, but that may be because it is near the bird feeder.

Schip laurel

Its just like Otto Luykins, except taller. Mine got to 8 feet.

Pieris japonica is a favorite of mine for part-shade, though will tolerate more or less sun. 'Mountain Fire' is a cultivar with reddish new growth that is particularly attractive. Has berries after the fragrant spring flowers and always looks nice.

For conifers, I have a golden falsecypress that is beautiful and is a dwarf but I forgot the variety's name. I love the almost fern-like dissected foliage which needs some sun for the golden color but takes afternoon shade. It has a lovely arching shape.

Some of my azaleas are deciduous, and the ones that keep their leaves turn a nice reddish color. Rhodos stay evergreen but when it's freezing or below they fold their leaves up and look like they're shivering to me. I personally feel azaleas and rhodos are overused in landscaping around here. I am guilty of it too.

One of my favorite small evergreen shrubs is Daphne 'Carol Macke'. It has variegated leaves and very fragrant spring flowers, plus it keeps most of its leaves all winter. It tolerates quite a bit of shade.

Nandina:
Red berries all winter, fern=like foliage. red foliage all winter if you like firepower (or is it fireplug?) Part shade. Come in various heights to 6 feet or so. (My tallest is about 7 feet, but it is a freak.)

Skyrocket Juniper:
tall (15 feet), thin (18 inches) & blue conifer.

Camellias!!! What a beautiful plant in foliage and in flower. I live north of you and have several japonicas and sasanquas that have been thriving for years. I prefer the japonicas, larger leaves and very early spring flowers. I'm sure if we get a once in fifty years extraordinarily cold spell they may die but to me they're worth it. Mine have happily blown through 8-10 degree low temps (we've been here 22 years and that's the lowest I can remember). Other favorites I have: southern magnolia, heath, heather (finicky), mahonia (oregon grape holly), hellebores, rhodos,
azaleas, candytuft, lavender, rosemary (marginally hardy) and, surprisingly, lamium.

Weeping Hemlock. Interesting structure (looks like a green waterfall when it gets big) but susceptible to the wooly adelgid (sp?).

Japanese Umbrella Pine. Broad needles. The cadillac of pines. Very slow growing.

Hebe Holly. Small plant with refined, interesting texture.

Filbert

Try some Paxistima . It's a low, spreading evergreen groundcover, also a native plant.

Here is a link that might be useful: Information about Paxistima

I'd like a clue about which evergreen plants do well in sunny, potentially windy locales in N. Central Md. There are Scotch pines on my lot which have suffered a fair amount of damage--dropped limbs, ice damage. I'm concerned about windburn too on large leaved evergreens. Ideas?

Someone else mentioned false cypress -- the Chamaecyparis family is really nice, IMHO. Supposedly the C. obtusa types do better in mid-Atlantic than the C. pisiferas and the other one I am blanking out on..... There are tons of C. obtusa cultivars that mature at different sizes, some with gold or white variegation, different shapes, etc. They can take the hot, humid weather here better than alot of conifers that thrive up North.

Anyway, go to the Gotelli collection at the National Arboretum (you can even get there by bus from Union Station on weekends, if public transport is needed) and walk around once the snow disappears. You can see what mature and younger specimens of many conifers look like, especially the so-called "dwarf" varieties. That just means slow growing, so in the last 50 yrs some of them have gotten huge. I was there a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed seeing the winter color and foliage variety. Good luck!

As for Camellias, the US Arboretum had most of theirs killed in extremely cold winters 77-79--the survivors were used by William Ackerman to create cold-hardy cultivars that now should have no problem here. Their names, and the story behind this is at this link:

Here is a link that might be useful: Camellias for Cold Climates

One of my favorites is Rhapidophyllum Hystrix (Needle Palm). A true zone 6-b shrubby fan palm which will thrive and grow slowly on the S or SE side of the house. My largest ones are 3' and 5' foliage height. There's a very large one at the National Arboretum which survived the winters of the 70's.

Brent, one word for your questions: COSTCO. Seriously, last year I bought some beautiful hollies, including a Nellie Stevens, evergreen azaleas, and a beautiful blue spruce. Much cheaper than Merrifield and bigger sizes. When I asked about any guarantee, was told "good for life of the plant." The new Chantilly store had the best selection last year. Talked to several professional landscapers while shopping and they said they try to get as much as they can from Costco for the garden bones. Suz

Camellias and needle palms are excellent, but my favorite evergreen is Kleim's Hardy Gardenia. It usually has one huge burst here of intensely sweet blooms in late May, with sporadic blooms throughout the summer. Also, a great evergreen perennial is Rohdea japonica (plain green and variegated).

Rohdea japonica? I cannot say I ever heard of that one. A search turned up some pictures and I though "wow, and evergreen hosta". That is exactly the term used on the Plant Delights page. hmmm...I see where they can get quite pricey.

There have been lots of great suggestions on this thread. I am definitely planning on adding some Pieris japonica to my landscape and I think I will give Camellias a try as well.

- Brent

Where are good local places for Rhapidophyllum Hystrix (Needle Palm)?

for evergreen conifers i like the yoshini cryptomerias. they have some planted at the aroretum as a forest. hemlock would be my favorite but they are hard to grow with the wooly adelphids. there is an evergreen variety of sweetbay magnolia which is called 'henry hicks'. it is a small tree. some viburnums are wvergreen like the leather leaf. southern magnolias are nice broadleaf evergreens. there is a dwarf variety called 'little gem' that get about 20 feet tall. mountain laurels are my fave shrubs but they are really hard to grow.

I haven't seen anyone mention my favorite for shade- Illicium parviflorum- Small Anise-tree. Zone 7, deep to part shade, best in moist to wet soil, but will do drier. Nice soft olive new growth, good contrast with the deep green of magnolia and cammelia. Gets to about 10x10, but takes pruning. Cool flowers, but not showy, native. Some sites list it as zone 8- but most say 7 (including Dirr). It took out 10 degrees well this winter.

Here is a link that might be useful: Auburn edu- illicium sheet

Brent  Many azaleas look very good in winter. I love the Girard azaleas (GirardÂs Rose, GirardÂs Fuchsia, etc.). They hold their leaves well in winter, and the leaves turn a nice bronzy color. Some of the Linwood azaleas (Garden State Glow, etc.) behave similarly. I prefer the Girard azaleas, because they tend to drop their petals more cleanly. The U.S. National Arboretum had a huge azalea breeding program. If you visit the Arboretum, you can view many of their introductions in formal and informal settings.

Rhododendron yakushimanum cultivars (Yaku Prince, Yaku Princess, etc.) do very well in our area. They are very hardy, remain compact, and have interesting indumentum on the newly-emerged leaves. Lepidote rhododendrons (PJM, Olga, etc.) bloom very early and have attractive reddish-brown to near-black leaves in winter.

Kalmia (mountain laurel) is another beautiful ericaceous (acid-loving) shrub. For perennials, Helleborus orientalis (Lent rose) and Helleborus foetidus maintain evergreen foliage through the winter. The leaves get ratty around bloom time, and can be snipped off to let late-winter the blooms show.

Bruce

Here is a link that might be useful: Roslyn Nursery (2005 catalog not yet available)

I've purchased both 'Otto Luyken' laurel & 'Winterthur' viburnam, both are showing signs of scale & will need horticultural oil...I've just planted 4 camellias...want to plant more evergreens...

I am also a fan of the rhododendrons, azleas, and I also like blue spruce. My Mt. Laurel is not growing much, but looks healthy and blooms nicely each late spring, and I have been impressed with the toughness of my Mahonia. It has neat "grape shaped" blue berries, reddish foliage at some points during the year, and deer leave it alone !