Wildlife Photograph

The Benefits and Beauty of Evergreens

Thursday December 22, 2005
Evergreens make beautiful Christmas trees. Read all about the benefits of planting them in your yard.

This winter season consider planting a tree with “year-round leaves.” Evergreens are excellent year-round cover for wildlife and songbirds.  Mourning doves find pines a favorite roosting and nesting site.  Many evergreens provide excellent food for wildlife as well.  Year-round leaves can also help conserve home energy when trees are planted on the north to northwest side of your home.  In addition, you will have a great source of decorating materials for this festive time of year. Decorating an evergreen for the birds is a great winter activity.  You can use pines cones smeared with suet and rolled in birdseed, millet seeds still on the stem or raisins and cereal ‘O’s” strung on yarn.                                               
Native Gardens in Greenback suggests considering the following pines for your yard:   the Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus), the Shortleaf Pine (Pinus echinata), the      Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana) and the Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda).  The amount of seed produced for wildlife will vary from year to year, but they are always a great place to hide if you are small.  The Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) is a great cover tree for birds, and when grown in dense thickets, this tree makes great cover for deer.  The berry-like fruits of the red cedar are eaten by many species including bobwhite quail, wild turkeys, rabbits, foxes, raccoons, skunks, and opossums.  The incredibly beautiful songbird the cedar waxwing favors the fruit of the red cedar.  These birds are seen annually at Ijams, for just a brief time, and they are never far from a cedar tree.  Although beautiful in the mountains at the lower elevations around Knoxville, most spruce species will struggle in the heat of the valley.  Another great “year-round leaf” tree is the American Holly (Ilex opaca), which is native to East Tennessee.  The flowers are an important source of pollen for bees, and the red berries are eaten by many species of birds including cedar waxwings and mockingbirds.  This holly, although slow growing, makes a striking tree.  The Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) is a beautiful tree that appears to die in the autumn. Looking like an evergreen during the growing season, this native looses its leaves in the winter, but don’t worry, they will be back in the spring.

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