Firs are a good choice as an alternative to spruce or pines when the site is semi-shady. Hemlock Native to our area, hemlock offers a beautifully graceful evergreen. They have very short, flat needles that are green on their upper side and very pale light green on the underside giving them a distinctive appearance. To grow happy and healthy, hemlocks require cool, moist, well-drained, acid soil. Sometimes that is difficult to provide in the urban landscape, but there are some very beautiful specimens growing in the Twin City area.
Hemlocks are the most shade tolerant evergreen tree.
Bachman's offers a tree hemlock and a spreading shrub. If you have the right site for a hemlock, there is no evergreen that is more stately, graceful and beautiful. This is a plant that even the landscape industry knows very little about at this time, but it offers unique beauty that makes it worth trying. It is being tested and grown in a number of conditions to determine its preferences. Microbiota prefers well-drained, moist soil.