Are you looking for native evergreen trees for your Kansas or Missouri garden, or maybe just curious about what grows here? Here I outline your evergreen choices. These same trees are native to a larger part of the USA – I’ll explain that too.
Eastern Redcedar - Juniperus virginiana
Native Evergreen Trees in Kansas
If you are looking for a native evergreen tree for your Kansas or western Missouri garden your top choice is eastern redcedar, Juniperus virginiana. In fact it’s your ONLY choice.
Eastern redcedar is the only native evergreen tree in Kansas and western Missouri. It is also native to parts of every state east of the Rocky Mountains.
Male and Female Juniperus virginiana
In farmland, where eastern redcedar self-seeds and is prone to become invasive, it’s common practice to remove female trees.
Given that a variety of birds feed on the small berry-like seed cones you may want to plant a female tree and take the risk of more sprouting up in your garden. It’s not a difficult tree to remove if you get too many – merely cut it off below the lowest leafed branch and it will not re-sprout.
For great information on eastern redcedar download eastern redcedar pdf from the US Forest Service.
Don’t Plant with the Apple Family
Do not plant eastern redcedar near to apple trees or trees in the apple or rose families because it is an alternate host for the fungal disease cedar- apple rust. If you already have a cedar tree and want to grow apples choose varieties which are resistant to cedar-apple rust.
Pines (plus) Native to Missouri
There are some additional evergreen trees native to parts of Missouri, most of which are in the pine family, as follows: loblolly pine, Pinus taeda; shortleaf pine, Pinus echinata.
In addition baldcypress, or swamp cypress Taxodium distichum is, according to The Sibley Guide to Trees, native to Missouri and even to Kansas. Although baldcypress is native to wet, swamp habitat, according to Sibley, it grows relatively well in dry settings beyond it’s native range.
So, if you’re looking for a native evergreen tree for your Kansas or Missouri garden you’re not going to be lost choosing among a long list of trees!
Do you have evergreen trees in your garden? Are they natives?
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Are those slow-growers? I love evergreens and particularly natives, since they typically don’t require extra watering.
Roy Scribner´s last blog ..Honestly, is this all there is?
Roy, thanks for asking that question.
I checked and eastern redcedar is considered slow growing. However, I need to qualify this by saying that is according the the US Forest Service, so I think they are applying that to its timber potential. It’s a tree with a lot of greenery and not very much wood growth.
There is a lot more information in the pdf document from the US Forest Service, which I’ve added to my article above.