Plant no-nonsense shrubs

Mix evergreens for year-round foliage and deciduous shrubs for seasonal spectacle

There are plenty of nononsense shrubs for the easy-care garden. Some, like Viburnum burkwoodii, pack a fragrant punch in spring. Clusters of white f lowers emerge from pink buds and some foliage persists through winter, so this semievergreen is perfect above spring woodlanders. Its lily-like fragrance really carries. Sarcococca is highly fragrant too, and so easy at the front of a border, or in a pot. Summer fragrance tends to be less heady and mock oranges, or philadelphus, have a fresh lemon zing. ‘Belle Etoile’ has starry four-petalled white flowers and a hint of blueberry in the middle, and ‘Beauclerk’ has fuller white flowers with a soft cerise eye. These are the pick of the bunch. Every garden deserves an evergreen or two, and the red-tinted new foliage of Photinia fraseri ‘Red Robin’ is handsome all year round. It works really well with miniature blue scillas and muscari. Aucuba japonica is shade-tolerant and slow-growing. Add a splash of

Every garden deserves an evergreen or two

sunshine with variegated ‘Crotonifolia’, or try ‘Rozannie’ with green serrated leaves. When summer fades to autumn, smoke bushes, or cotinus, develop a wiry tracery of stems above their lollipop foliage. Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’ has deep-claret foliage that lingers late. For something even darker, opt for Sambucus nigra ‘Gerda’ with its highly divided black leaves.

With its dark leaves and pinky-white flowers, Sambucus nigra ‘Gerda’ makes a handsome partner for red-leaved Cercis canadensis, Euphorbia characias and a ruffled edging of acid-green Alchemilla mollis

Cotinus ‘Royal Purple’