Plant of the week

Viburnum farreri: This is a native of China but bears the name of a renowned Yorkshireman – planthunter Reginald Farrer. It grows to 10ft in height and almost the same in width with sweetly-perfumed, pinktinged white blooms in late autumn and early spring. Its dark green leaves are bronze when young, turning brilliant shades of red-purple in autumn. Farrer, whose home was Clapham, in the Dales, described the plant as one of the most glorious shrubs he had ever seen.