Garden Highlights

Evergreen is a naturalistic one-acre woodland garden created by landscape designer Robert Gillmore and named for its extensive massed evergreen plantings. This idealized woodland includes:

• Sweeps of 220 Catawba rhododendrons (Rhododendron catawbiense), which bloom in late May/early July.
• 175 massed rosebay rhododendrons (Rhododendron maximum), which flower in July.
• 94 other shade-tolerant broadleaf evergreen shrubs: mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), Japanese andromeda (Pieris japonica), mountain andromeda (Pieris  floribunda), meserve holly (Ilex meserveae), leucothoe (Leucothoe fontanesiana), including sweeps of variegated leucothoe cultivars ‘Girard’s Rainbow’ and ‘Silver Run.’
• Carpets of shade-tolerant evergreen ground covers, including variegated cultivars of euonymus (Euonymus fortunei): white-and-green ‘Emerald Gaiety’ and yellow-and-green ‘Emerald ’n Gold’; Vinca minor and its yellow-and-green cultivar ‘Illumination’ and its white-and-green variety, ‘Ralph Shugart’; Pachysandra terminalis and its white-and-green cultivar ‘Silver Edge.’
• Sweeps of hay-scented fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula).
• Groupings of variegated white-and-green and yellow-and-green hostas.
• More than 100 mature white pines (Pinus strobus), some as wide as three feet at the base.
• Granite cliffs as much as 20 feet high.
• More than 80 large, handsome granite boulders known as “glacial erratics”—the largest is 12 feet high and 20 feet wide and forms the north wall of the Gold Room (see below). Several form a cavernlike feature known as “the Cave.”
• A seasonal cascading brook with pools and small waterfalls.
• More than 385 feet of artificial ridges known as berms, all planted with rhododendrons, which screen the garden from neighboring development.
• Large outdoor “rooms” defined by large granite boulders and rhododendron-planted berms.

• The White Room, named for the blossoms of its rosebay rhododendrons, its cast-iron bench and cherub sculpture—all are white—and for its white variegated euonymus and hosta.
• The Gold Room, named for the yellow flowers of its ‘Hong Kong’ rhododendrons and the yellow foliage of its large sweeps of variegated euonymus and Vinca minor.

     For more information see the Detailed Garden Description.