Open today from 09:00 until 17:00

Conifers for small gardens

Evergreen and reliable, conifers are elegant trees with sculptural foliage, beautiful cones and sometimes autumn colour, too. Several are compact enough to fit into a smaller garden: here are five of our favourites from the range available in our garden centre.

Korean fir (Abies koreana): Startling steel-blue needles make this fir stand out: it's a low, wide-spreading tree, and the cones are purplish blue too. Grows, slowly, to about 3m.

Cryptomeria japonica: Very handsome upright tree with sweeping blue-green branches ('Elegans Aurea' is yellow-green) which flush bronze in late autumn. Grows between five and 10m tall depending on variety.

Picea pungens 'Globosa': Low-growing spruce which gradually forms a spreading dome of sharp, stiff grey- green needles. The height and spread are just one metre.

Columnar yew (Taxus baccata 'Standishii'): Evergreen yews are great in small gardens as they're easily clipped into shape. 'Standishii' does it all by itself, forming a golden column 1m tall and just 18cm wide.

Maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba): The conifer that doesn't look like a conifer: ginkgos are airy trees with delicate-looking fan-shaped leaves which turn butter-yellow before falling in autumn. Reaches 5-10m tall.

Please ask the staff in our garden centre in  for more information and advice about choosing conifers suitable for small gardens.

View more categories in the category Trees and shrubs