National Conifer Week (23rd September – 1st October) is an ideal occasion to spotlight the remarkable attributes of conifers in our gardens.
Conifers serve as attractive focal points, offering structure, texture, and year-round colour to gardens of any size. Their versatility is unmatched, presenting a wide array of well-defined and dramatic shapes, from ground cover to dwarf, medium, and large lawn specimens. The varying shades of greens, yellows, and blues add to their visual appeal.
Beyond their good looks, conifers play a crucial role in the environment by capturing and storing CO2 in their branches, roots, and trunks. Additionally, their needles efficiently trap pollutants to clean the air.
As evergreens, they provide year-round shelter for wildlife and serve as natural partners for heathers which work hard to provide long flowering interest and act as magnets for pollinators. Conifers will also thrive alongside ferns, epimediums, and woodland plants in shaded areas.
Despite a bit of past negativity, conifers have re-emerged as really important assets to gardens and ecosystems. We think it’s high time for a resurgence.
As evergreens, conifers will provide structure, texture and colour in your garden all year round. Never underestimate that; you may not notice it in the summer but you’ll come to value it in the winter.
Most conifers are evergreen so they absorb carbon dioxide all year round. Their needles are also particularly good at purifying the air by capturing pollution, like particulate matter such as exhaust fumes.
Conifers provide shelter and food for wildlife all year round. With dense foliage for nesting, seeds found in conifer cones and textured bark, all sorts of wildlife will appreciate a conifer in your garden.
You do need to choose wisely but many conifers are fairly slow growing or come as dwarf varieties, and most are also completely hardy in our climate.
Conifers come in shades of greens and yellows through to bluey-greys and they have scales, needles and cones in all sorts of sizes and arrangements. We believe there really is a conifer for every garden, pot and balcony!
Further reading
Learn how to care for conifers here
Advice on choosing the right tree for your garden here
Conifer varieties can make great ground cover plants
