Hi everyone,
I posted this up in trees and shrubs... then I found the mystery section... Help witll be much appreciated.

I have an evergreen shrub in my yard that I call the lily pad evergreen. I want to know what it is really called. Here is a picture of it. Mind you I groom it in the spring - so it's looking a little rough

Thanks for your help.

Could you get a closer shot of the foliage? It's hard to say, although, if I had to guess, I'd say some sort of juniper. The "lily pads" as you call them are not the natural form of the plant, but are produced by a method of pruning called "cloud pruning".

Oh wise obywan
Thank you for your reply. I've been tending to this evergreen since we moved in 16 years ago. I am not a gardener by any stretch - that was mom's private heaven. But, this evergreen has always been mine.

I had no idea it didn't grow this way. Just after we moved, a dear friend, Ms. Barrett visitied here. He went nutty for the lily pad shrub - She told me then to always take good care of it - I do what she says.) She definetely knew the name of this thing. It's just over the years I forgot it and mom's not here to remind me.

Anyway - I'll wait until spring and it's all spruced up and take more pictures.

I is there a common name or general name - will liy pad shrub do? Or ist there a better name for this type of shrub?

Thuja species also known as arborvitae are the most common shrubs that get cloud pruned. From the photo, it looks like it may be a thuja.

Thanks alan...
I'm happy to know it's called "cloud" pruned. That's actually mostly what I was after... I keep things simple

You know thuja could be the name she told me years ago. It was short and sing songy name.

Thanks a lot. Now, I can speak of my cloud pruned evergreen