shrub suggestions

Up until now I have mainly focused on gardening in containers because I have been getting my patio area the way I wanted it. Now I have begun to plan some borders and have collected a few plants to go in as soon as our fence is sorted, hopefully before too much longer. Everything I have so far is herbacious so is not going to give much year round interest. I would like to have some shrubs I guess but I've never found them very interesting or it seems they grow way too big. I've seen a couple of hebes I like but that's about it. I DON'T like box. I want something that grows a max of 4 to 5 feet and doesn't take up masses of space. Something with interesting foliage at least, maybe flowers or berries. Full sun to slight shade. I don't think I have acid soil either. What do you think?

 

for evergreen:

photilia red robin

Elaeagnus x ebbingei (good smell, but looks plain ... there are other varieties with better foilage)

fatsia japonica but needs semishade

Choisya ternata Sundance

Nandina domestica

Ceanothus Concha

Sarcococca confusa but needs semishade (for smell)

Aucuba spotted laurel ... needs semishade

there are loads more evergreen that will be suited

 

Have a look at the Crocus.co.uk plant finder, which will give you some ideas.

For any shrubs such as Elaeagnus x ebbingei (which is larger and fairly fast growing - and wide spreading), these can always be kept to required size by pruning

 

Hi Catztail

I like Skimmia japonica, a nice neat evergreen shrub which grows fairly slowly and won't get too enormous. It makes a mound of shiny leaves and has candles of small white flowers in the spring. The buds start appearing the year before - my plant is already covered in them. Some skimmias also have red berries later in the season, but only the females! You have to grow a male and a female to get the fruits. Mine is called 'Fragrant Cloud' and doesn't produce berries, but as its name suggests it has been selected for fragrance. It smells just like hyacinths. Some named varieties - 'Rubella' is one - have reddish flowers rather than white.

Usually the advice is to grow them in acidic soil, but mine is growing just fine on fairly chalky soil. I've added in a lot of compost and it seems quite happy.