PalmsNorth.com

This is Latvian University Botanical Garden in Riga - Zone 5b/6a.

It's important to note that Riga is officially listed in Zone 6a.
However over the years I've woken up in the morning to -26 Celsius (=15 Fahrenheit)
too many times.

Also, winters are super long and dark, because Riga is much much further up north than Quebec city in Canada.
Riga is located at a latitude 56°.

So I'm always overwhelmed to see some broad leaf evergreens in Riga.

LU Botanical Garden in Riga has some green islands.
Planted 20-30 or more years back.
Here is the main green oasis in a panorama view. Full size picture here https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5666/2371 ... d853_o.jpg


Here is that green oasis from a distance.



There are two extremely important examples of BLE in terms of what can be achieved in zone 5b.
1. Viburnum which has become a small tree



2. Euonymous - has reached the sky



Then there are 2 Pieris's
The oldest one is rally struggling.


The youngster seems fine.



Another great plant is Leucoteya.
It must have been there for a very long time, because it has become so wide.



Then I found Cherry Laurel about 1m-1.2m high.
A really good size for Zone 5.



Then there were 2 shrubs I couldn't recognize.




And the last two will be ground covers.
Really nice ones. Don't ask me what they are - I have no idea, but they are 100% evergreen in Riga.

The blue green ground cover, second from the bottom looks like spurge. Maybe Euphorbia myrsinites.

DesertZone wrote:The blue green ground cover, second from the bottom looks like spurge. Maybe Euphorbia myrsinites.

nice, thx

I love evergreens. I'd like to landscape a whole yard with nothing but evergreens some day. Then I'd just add some herbaceous plants for color in the spring.

No idea what that last one is, it's neat for sure.

Cherry laurel won't survive in my zone, never had one make it more than 2 winters. In Niagara (6b/7a) they can grow to 1.5 meters but will take leaf damage quite often... Are there any hollies growing there?

Paul Ont wrote:No idea what that last one is, it's neat for sure.

Cherry laurel won't survive in my zone, never had one make it more than 2 winters. In Niagara (6b/7a) they can grow to 1.5 meters but will take leaf damage quite often... Are there any hollies growing there?

Thx for your questions.
Regarding Cherry Laurel.
Normally it would want to be a ground cover and would look like in the picture below:D
However, I'v noticed if Cherry Laurel gets a good shade from sun up until April, when soil warms up,
they will not get burnt that bad.


About Ilex.
To my surprise they don't have in LU Riga botanic garden any Ilex trees.
However, just about 10km further up North West outside Riga city I found the
largest Ilex I've ever seen in Latvia.
I talked to the owners. It's close to 20 years old.
My estimate - 3-4 m high. Like a small tree or a large bush.
However, I've noticed they always cut off the top bit considerably.
For propagation purposes.
If they wouldn't do that, It might be about 5m high now.

cuja1 wrote:I love evergreens. I'd like to landscape a whole yard with nothing but evergreens some day. Then I'd just add some herbaceous plants for color in the spring.

I have become evergreen addict. I spend too much time and money on evergreen pants continuously for 2.5 years now.
I even got a 25 x 25 plot in Riga, which will be "evergreened" by me
I'll force in there around 30 evergreen plants.
Half of them will be shrubs, bushes or small trees (Ilex, Viburnum).
The rest will be ground covers.

I'm over excited about this project.
I can't wait to hide from my spouse how much money I'll blow on it