Example 1: Honey Euryops 'Tali'
Life cycle: Perennial
Leaves: Evergreen
Always thought of a 'Perennial' as a plant that died back to the ground (disappeared) in the fall/winter and all new growth came up again in the spring. Am not talking about a 'tree' that looses it's leaves each year.
Always thought of an 'Evergreen' as a plant staying the same size with foliage remaining on the plant all year round.

Example 2: Japanese Pieris 'Valley Rose'
This does not have a 'Life cycle' field.
Leaves: Evergreen

Question: What is the information in the various 'fields' I need to review to make sure I get an 'evergreen' that doesn't die back to the ground in the fall/winter?

Thank you for having such an awesome website.
Tom Huxley

I can't speak for the plants in question but a perennial is a plant that lives more than one season (in a permissive climate) as opposed to an annual, which flowers and dies within a year. The term perennial has nothing to do with whether a plant dies back to the ground in the winter. Some perennials might do this but most do not. I think what you're looking for is actually a perennial.

Maybe another way to talk about perennial and annual is this
Annuals begin to flower, do so continuously until they exhaust themselves and die, often that happens at frost.
Perennials bloom for a period, top growth may be killed by frost or winter weather or may not, but will typically return( regrow, bloom again) with the return of warm weather, for a number of years.

Evergreen' as a plant staying the same size with foliage remaining on the plant all year round.

You have part of that right, evergreen as in foliage remains on plant year round but it doesn't mean plant stays same size.
Your description of a plant loosing its leaves or disappearing entirely in the winter is considered either dormant or deciduous.

Hi @tkhuxley

Welcome to NGA! Lots of friendly gardeners here and lots of information.

The information fields in the database are not all exactly the same because there are "sub" databases for specific plant groups such as daylilies.

As said above, perennial means that a plant lives from year to year with an indeterminate length of lifespan - a few years to a few hundred years, maybe more.

The 2 main categories of perennial plants are woody plants (trees, shrubs) and herbaceous (daylilies, grasses, phlox for example).

Some garden writers casually call certain woody plants "evergreens" when what they mean are conifers - with "Christmas tree" 🌲 shapes, often. These don't stay the same size forever but many do grow very slowly.

Then there are evergreen broadleaf woody plants. These can be shrubs (boxwood, pieris, rhododendrons, e.g.) or trees (Southern magnolia, some oak such as live oak, American holly, e.g.).

Writers are not always explicit in the way they're using "evergreen" so you often have to consider the context.

Hope this helps.

Pat

The info in the database has been contributed by members. If you think something is missing, you can suggest that it be added.

As a gardening term, evergreen means the foliage remains on all year, whether it is needles or leaves. Many plants have a wide range of hardiness and can manifest as an herbaceous perennial that is not evergreen at the lowest end of their range, to a large woody entity that does always have leaves at the warmest end.

So if you are attracted to a plant reported as evergreen but the lowest zone for it is the zone you are in, it would be a good idea to ask if that particular plant is evergreen in your zone.

If you don't know your zone, you can find it here:
https://garden.org/nga/zipzone...

If you are not familiar with hardiness zones, please ask and the members can explain that too. Best luck!