You can make use of Thuja Smaragd’s slim, upright shape as a contrast to bushy and spreading plants. The combination of three shapes - very upright such as the Thuja, mounded, and low and spreading. is a great way of introducing drama into a small garden, especially at an entranceway or on a bank if the garden is sloping.

The mounded, shrubby plants could be such things as Coleonema ‘Alba’, Buxus sempervirens trimmed into round balls, Osmanthus ‘Pearly Gates’, Rhaphiolepsis varieties ‘Snow Maiden’, ‘Enchantress’ or ‘Ballerina’, Ceanothus ‘Yankee Point’ or Brachyglottis ‘Otari Cloud’. The low, ground covering plants could be succulents such as Sedum ‘Acapulco Gold’, blue-grey Echeverias, prostrate rosemaries such as ‘Masons Finest’ or ground cover Coprosmas.