The Rice paper plant is hardly one of the rarest things in my nursery or my garden but I wouldn’t be without it in either place as a stunning giant foliage plant that for all its tropical look is surprisingly hardy to the cold. It can grow to 4metres tall but I usually cut it …
If you like plants that virtually erupt out of the ground then the Mexican tree daisies could be the plant for you! They grow in much the same way as tree Dahlias putting on metres of growth from ground level in a season so as to be as much as 4metres or more by flowering …
The japanese maples are looking splendid this spring, so fresh and vibrant and one of my many favourites is this one. Its rich burgundy foliage keeps its colour till autumn far better than almost any other that I have met and then it turns scarlet as the picture shows. It also gets masses of red …
This truly stunning plant has a long history as a garden plant at Mt. Macedon where I live. Nearly all the large gardens have colonies of it and it has certainly been grown here for decades before I was born. It has always been known by local gardeners as Tree Angelica and I only got …
This has to be one of the great perfumed shrubs and tough as they come. It flowers in the autumn and the tiny white blossoms perfume the surrounds with what I think is the scent of ripe apricots! The foliage is rich green and somewhat holly like in the plants youth but as it ages …
I love this Genus, there is so much that Viburnums can do in the garden. Some are evergreen with bold foliage, some deciduous with great autumn colour, some are grown for scent or berries, branch structure or of course stunning showy flowers. If you collected the whole Genus it is so diverse that it wouldn’t …
This is supposed to be the rarest maple in the wild coming from a very small area in China and only collected and then raised in the west a couple of times so that all cultivated plants come from much the same original material. Apart from rarity why grow it? Certainly it has proved to …
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 has to be the ultimate plant for dry shade, in fact it will grow in the driest and darkest shade you can find so anywhere that almost no other plant will survive will be ideal for this one! It is in fact an evergreen perennial to about 1metre tall that acts more like a …