This small shrub or even perhaps sub-shrub is a great asset to any garden. It will grow in almost any sunny well drained site and can be used as an individual or as a low border hedge that is a great alternative to lavender. The foliage is deciduous and from spring to autumn is a …
Until just a few moments ago when I was about to blog this plant I would have done so under the name Scilla greilhuberi but such is the flux in plant nomenclature that it doesn’t pay to assume anything! What ever this rarely grown Iranian Blue Bells botanical name is it is a great garden plant. …
This attractive shrub has never found itself in the limelight here in Australia and in my humble opinion unfairly so. It is hardy, coping with sun and cold well and not fussy about soil types. Its habit is upright to about 3metres and it will make a suckering clump which makes it ideal as a …
This amazing plant has a lot of bad press to get over so I see it as my job to do so! For a start it isn’t going to give you a rash, the species that people are allergic to is now not even a Rhus but appropriately called Toxicodendron. It does however sucker strongly …
The European Spindle berry, so called because its hard wood was used to make spindles for spinning wheels and it apparently was also used for rolling pins as well, how useful! It is however for its hardiness and ornamental values that I plant and recommend this small tree. It is a deciduous plant to 4metres …
I know that this isn’t the rarest thing around but of all the scented plants I know Winter sweet has to be my favourite. Forget your Daphnes and Jasmines I would take this plant above all others for perfume and it is tough as they come as well. It is a large deciduous shrub from …
This stunning ornamental Grape is rarely offered in Australia and I find it hard to understand why. It is far less rampant that the classical one and its leaves start to turn burgundy as soon as they get to full size so that right throughout late spring summer and autumn you get burgungy foliage which …
The Genus has a wide distribution and comes from a huge range of habitats so it is only to be expected that diverse forms have evolved from annuals to alpines, ground covers to moderately large shrubs. Some have become weedy and others are used in herbal medicine. What is strange is that this Genus consists …
Now that autumn is here we (at least in the cooler areas) should be revelling in the autumn coloured foliage, but have you noticed that so many of the best known plants of this season tend to be large trees and wouldn’t it be nice to have some of this largess at a lower level. …
What a great newish plant to western horticulture. First described as a new Genus Sinocalycanthus but since sunk into the Genus with its North American relative and suddenly we have a first ranking garden shrub. It will grow to about 3metres, is deciduous with large handsome glossy bright green leaves that turn yellow in autumn. …