This is the plant if you need something for the darkest,driest, spot in the garden, you could probably grow it in a cupboard, in fact it won’t like you if you try growing it in a sunny spot! It is actually an evergreen perennial although it looks more like a shrub and it grows to …
This deciduous Asian shrub isn’t used anywhere near enough in gardens and anyone who has a copy of my now out of print first book “Exceptional Plants” can look it up and find out everything about it. For those of you silly enough not to have bought this important book I had best give you …
Red Veined Dock does’t sound too good but it is a great plant in so many ways. Yes it is a Dock weed but its stunning bright green leaves with a network of blood red veins makes it a foliage plant with great presence in any garden. The leaves can be blanched and added to …
This has to be about the wierdest tree in the world so those of a timid disposition should avoid it! The leaders usually head in a generally upward direction with the side branches cascading down making it potentially the worlds tallest but narrowest tree. The one in Bobnant Gardens in Wales was at some time …
I imported this shrub some time back and it didn’t have a recognised name at the time and was called something or other of Hort. There is a picture of this very plant in Michael Dirr’s book and the above is what he calls it. So it will have to do for now. Whatever it …
I am no orchid expert and in the cold climate of Mt. Macedon I couldn’t grow the tropical ones without the heated greenhouse that I don’t make enough money to build! I have however grown a few cool climate terrestrial species and I have found this one very easy. Alright it isn’t as showy as …
This has to be one of my favourite small shrubs for a cool spot with acid soil. It is a hybrid between the two species of the Genus although it is often listed as a form of F. major. It grows slowly to a metre or more and in spring is a mass of fluffy …
If you want something to brighten up a dark spot and do it fairly quickly this plant could be for you. It runs around and makes sizable drifts but never swamps plants it grows with so it nicely ties any planting together. It gets to about 30cms. tall with arching branched stems and the main …
This rarely offered New Zealand ever-bronze shrub should not be ignored by we gardeners and for the following reasons: It is upright and narrow to 3 metres or so making it ideal in narrow beds, between windows or as a narrow eye catching feature plant. The tiny bronze-green leaves make it texturally interesting and although …
I raised this strange North American woodland plant from seed many years ago and it has great subtle charm. It can send up branched arching slightly zigzaggy stems to 1metre with tiny bells hiding under each leaf on fine bent stems that are followed by shiny red berries that look like they are floating in …