Evergreen I.D please.

Could somebody I.D this evergreen that is sat in the corner of my garden,it is the little catkin style flowers that have made me curious,also,what colour might the flowers be?

 

Hi Pip, there is a hint of a cotoneaster about it but the little wormy things are puzzling me. Maybe some-one else knows.

 

Hello there Celia, the bush has loads of these buds on it.

 

Hiya, pip.

At first glance I thought Ceanothus (Californian Lilac) but it's years since I had mine and the mind gets foggy with age. Second thought is a Hebe. Both are evergreen and perhaps could bloom this early.

Just my guesses. An expert in these matters will no doubt come along and tell you what it is.

 

it resembles a camelia...

 

The Camelia has serated leaf edges, Pips pic doesn't?

 

Hi all, :D

You`re right Terrier,my plant doesn`t have serated edges.

Mira, I already have a camelia and the buds are a totally different shape,round and chunky.

LoL, might be inclined to go along with your idea,just looked up lilac in my gardening encyclopedia(Christmas present from my daughter) and the picture,although small,does seem to resemble my plant.

 

I think it could be Beberis valdiviana.

 

I had a suggestion:
Prunus laurocerasus

 

Evening mira. I had that in Bucks ... a beautiful tree indeed. It grew to about 20 feet plus and bloomed beautifully every year for perhaps 12-15 years, but I don't remember it blooming in such a small stage and I bought it about one foot high from Woolie's I remember.

 

I came across an unpruned prunus, if you know what I mean, today.
It did have very similar flowering growths forming.
But it did seem to be bigger in all respects.
Are we looking at another species of prunus here?

 

Other than the P laurocerasus (Cherry Laurel) which mira suggests, there is the P lusitanica (Portugal Laurel :D ) which is much smaller. However, it has red leaf stems and I can't see that in Pip's photo. There is a dwarf Cherry Laurel which can be used as ground coverf called 'Otto Luyken' which it could be. However, Laurels normally bloom April/May so it would seem odd Pip has it blooming in January in Lancashire.

 

But as I said LoL, I found one today in a very similar state of bud.
It must be the mild weather.
Its difficult to get a good idea of scale, I think that may be box down in the righthand bottom corner of pip's pic.
I think the Portugal laurel must be the one I was thinking about when I said it might be another spiecies of laurel, I have seen the red stemmed one which has smaller leaves.
It does get pretty big though as a plant.

 

BUT, you DID say it was much bigger ... "But it did seem to be bigger in all respects." and you DO live in one of the mildest parts of the UK.

Again, another one for us to wait for flowering.

Why did strongy not comment?

 

Ah, I confused the issue, the one I saw today was of the bigger laurocerasus type, most of the lusitanica type that I've seen around here have recently been cut down.
So I cant compare.

I think Lancashire is probably a lot milder, in parts, than we tend to think.

Maybe strongy is like me, he dont know what it is. :D :D