Precious sight for sore eyes in deepest winter
You have to be “hard” to survive a Yorkshire winter; you have to be very “hard” to thrive in a Yorkshire winter.
Thankfully, there are plenty of plants which are more than capable of looking after themselves whatever the weather. Snow and ice, storm and tempest are of little consequence to the likes of Euonymus fortunei “Silver Queen”, which is one of the toughest shrubs known to man and beast.
Named after Robert Fortune, the Scottish botanist best known for introducing tea plants from China to India, it has been described as a vigorous plant, but it isn’t – it’s a slow-growing evergreen shrub which is now just as much at home in England as it is in China and Japan.
Given the right conditions, a healthy specimen can eventually grow to eight feet in height and five feet in width, and trained as a climber, it could eventually reach the dizzy height of 20 feet.
But most gardeners grow it at ground level where its shiny green leaves, with white/pink margins, provide an eyecatching show all year round.
Forget about the tiny flowers, “Silver Queen” (commonly known as winter creeper) is cultivated for its foliage, which is always at its best grown in full sun. If any all-green leaves appear, cut them out immediately or the plant will eventually lose its attractive variegation.
Although a well-drained soil is the best home for the shrub, it can survive just about anywhere – even heavyish clay – as long as the ground isn’t waterlogged. So this is a plant perfect for beds, borders and containers as well as for training up walls and fences.
For those gardeners who prefer gold to silver, there’s always “Emerald ’n’ Gold” with bright-golden, variegated leaves which also turn an attractive pinkish-red in cold weather, making the plant a big hit in the winter months. It makes an excellent specimen shrub, a low, informal hedge or a climber on walls.