This large Chinese shrub can reach 4metres each way and if you have the right aspect and enough space it certainly pays its way! Its white lily of the valley style flowers are produced in midsummer and are beautifully fragrant with a musky scent. the dead flowers hang like copper bangles and the autumn foliage …
This hardy small upright evergreen Chilean tree is a must in the garden with its light upright habit, its tiny gross green leaves and its incredible perfume. I have several around my garden as they make great quick screening plants that don’t grow too wide and I get to appreciate the scent from all over …
If you hanker after a cut leafed Japanese maple but can’t have one due to climatic constraints then perhaps this is the plant for you. It is a hardy deciduous shrub to 1.5metres tall and wide with foliage so fine that from a distance it looks like green smoke! and it has clusters of tiny …
I have a love hate relationship with Lilacs I love the flowers but in general hate the bush. They are one week wonders and scruffy for most of the time. Sorry if I have offended anyone! What I would like is to have friends with lots of well established bushes that would kindly give me …
This stunning large tree from Japan and China is rarely seen or planted in Australia and I guess that it would be all but impossible to grow in most districts due to heat but anyone who lives in the cooler hill station parts of Australia should consider getting one (or several for a copse or …
Winter is just round the corner and what better time to consider and plant something that will give colour and joy in the late winter? This tall arching shrub exudes elegance with its soft green hazel nut like leaves that turn yellow in autumn and it is even better in late winter when its drooping …
Yes I know I’ve done this Genus twice before but I promise this will be the last time unless I find some more cold hardy species! This one is a suckering shrub up to 1.5metres tall in my climate and it will wander quite a distance (you have now been warned!) but it wouldn’t stop …
Well here we go again, another much loved plant has had a name change. So if you are looking for this stunning shrub in a book more than a few months old then look up Mahonia lomariifolia and it will have the same description as it is the same plant. What ever the name is …
This North American woodlander has become one of my favourite ground cover plants for moist shade. Its lovely kidney shaped leaves cover the ground with a weed suppressing mat year round and in only a couple of years it has covered about 2 square metres. It grows to about 30cms. tall and falling leaves drop …
Yes there is a plant named after me!! Wait till Canna ‘Stephen Ryan’ hits the market. In the mean time for the record this plant (and the Canna) were named after me not by me! My Dahlia is type cast, it is simple,single, virginal white, self supporting and slightly scented! It flowers for ages and …
