There are more than 2,300 plants representing 350 different species and cultivars of conifers found at Norfolk Botanical Garden. A concentration of them can be found in the Conifer Garden, which is a designated Reference Garden for the Southeast as determined by the American Conifer Society. This is a good area to see the variety of conifers – to compare their sizes, colors, forms, and unique characteristics.In this area we have combined conifers with companion plants such as Agapanthus, Sedums, daylilies, and ornamental grasses. Cheery daffodils punctuate the perennial plantings in late winter and spring.
Conifers are plants that bear cones, and are part of the class of plants known as gymnosperms, which lack flowers and produce seeds borne naked on a bract, or sporophyll. In the case of conifers, this is the cone. In contrast to gymnosperms, angiosperms are flowering plants that produce seeds in enclosed ovaries.
Most conifers are evergreen, but some species like our native bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) are deciduous.
The Garden is a member of the American Conifer Society.
The American Conifer Society has designated our Conifer Garden a Conifer Reference garden.
