Evergreen Perennials for the Midwest

Japanese holly fern

Cyrtomium falcatum

Zones: 6–10

Size: 1 to 2 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet wide

Conditions: Partial to full shade; moist to average, well-drained soil

Native range: Asia

This fern will never win any races, as it grows very slowly up here in the north. Consistently evergreen in warmer zones, a well-placed Japanese holly fern will blaze through winter unscathed in the Midwest. If it gets nipped by Jack Frost, though, you can just snip it clean and pretend that didn’t happen. I’ve had great luck growing it in raised beds with good drainage and up against a house where there is some residual heat and protection from wind. On the underside of the holly-like fronds are spore-producing structures called sori that will absolutely horrify anyone with trypophobia
(an aversion to the sight of irregular patterns of small holes or bumps).

 ‘Dark and Handsome’ hellebore 

Helleborus ‘Dark and Handsome’

Zones: 4–9

Size: 18 to 24 inches tall and wide

Conditions: Partial to full shade; moist to dry soil

Native range: Europe, Asia

With their evergreen foliage and super-early blooms, hellebores make great “front door” plants for northern gardens; if you put them any farther away from the house, you might miss the show. When customers ask me to recommend shade garden plants, I usually ­suggest hellebores with cheerful colors, since the blooms of many varieties face downward under foliage and appear at a gloomy time of year. But in my own garden, give me ‘Dark and Handsome’ all day long. The smoky, double, 3-inch-wide flowers bloom for me before April. Those who grow this plant in warmer zones may have problems with rampant spreading, but that is a hardship I will never know. 

‘Cobweb’ hens and chicks

Sempervivum