I love Dogwoods and in fact hold the national collection for ‘Plant Trust’ so they must be good! This salmon pink form of the Chinese dogwood is a stunning form with flat branches showing off the bracted flowers to perfection in the late spring after the early nonsense is over. It also has lovely berries in …
This has to be one of the best large shrubs for autumn colour with its large leaves that can be entire with a heart shape, have one lobe looking like a mitten or a lobe on both sides. So it is a great conversation piece as well as a great plant. It comes from Asia …
This has to be one of the most indestructible plants that I grow and although it is common it the U.S. and Europe is for some reason rarely offered in Australia. It is evergreen and its foliage will turn fabulous colours in winter if it is in enough cold and even if it doesn’t colour …
An oldie but a goodie! Over the years more and more cultivars of this species have hit the market and many are great plants in their own right. However I don’t think any are an improvement on this the Japanese Snowball. This is a deciduous shrub to 2metres with branches in flat layers that alway …
The Chinese Quince that was until recently called Pseudocydonia has to be one of the best small trees you could have! It has attractive deep pink flowers in mid spring followed by large oblong yellow fruit in summer that is by the way edible, then the foliage turns stunning colours in autumn and as if that wasn’t …
I love the autumn because the winter growing Oxalis suddenly start to erupt out of the ground and yes I know that includes the weedy ones but with so many species in the Genus (some hundreds apparently) they can’t all be weeds obviously. One of the early ones is this lovely yellow flowered African species …
Of all the plants in the grape vine family this Asian species with the appropriate common name of Glory Vine has to take the cake. It can grow huge if allowed to have its own way but can be trained and pruned like the domestic grapevine making it ideal to cover senses or grow over …
This amazing Genus of deciduous and mainly winter flowering shrubs are a joy in any sheltered garden in the cooler climates. I have a specimen of ‘Pallida’ in my nursery display garden that was planted in 1986 and it is now about 4metres tall and with its spreading horizontal branches at least 6metres across. I …
This charming little species is rarely grown in Australia and for no god reason as it is hardy, showy and self seeds well in a semi-shaded aspect in Southern Australia. Perhaps as it is autumnal in flower it is overlooked for the more common species of C. hederifolium which is better known and also worth …
The Genus is a smallish one and usually this species is missing from gardens and I think it is a shame. It is a fairly hardy quick growing deciduous shrub to about 2metres and as the name suggests comes from Japan as well as Korea and China. In summer it produces clusters of tiny fluffy …