Shrubs, Back to the Future?!
Updated: Mar 13
Many a Chelsea garden or trendy gardening book will extoll herbaceous perennials. Indeed stylistically 'forbs' (another name for HP's) are/were key to cottage gardens, the New Perennial movement and now 'Soft Modernism' garden design. For sure forbs are excellent for providing stunning aesthetics at scale as well as many benefits to wildlife.
While they're often the glamorous stars of the show, a good foundation of hardy shrubs is key to provide structure, winter interest and garden robustness to climate extremes. Important for us here in SE London, generally having smaller gardens which are subject to warmer but drier weather. Add to that poor, gravelly soils as around Blackheath.
But here's three excellent shrubs that we plant a lot around the area. While not wedded to these for every situation they do consistently provide an unassuming range of low maintenance ecological benefits. They also have lovely flowers but you may need to get a little closer to appreciated them ! :
Viburnum tinus (Laurustinus) - super hardy, takes shade and sun, evergreen and an RHS Plant for Pollinators. We've planted both standard trees, lollypops & regular bush forms which are super easy to maintain too. If your looking for a bay tree but for a shadier site plant this. The leaves are very similar and more suited to less bright areas.
Sarcococca (Sweet Box) - an unassuming small shrub but it packs a fragrant punch in winter. Its the only plant in our own garden thats survived the 25 years we've had it! A great addition to small, shady and/or dry gardens. You'll smell it before you see it, looks a little bit like an unkempt box bush but can be used for low informal hedging or as a border plant combined with herbaceous perennials.
Privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium) - OMG, yep, that's right, I said the 'P' word! Privet gets a bad rep because most people haven't bothered to realise its benefits. Poorly pruned/ badly hacked hedges predominate SE London. But guess what, the neglected hedges still grow every year without any care or attention! Oh, its a RHS Plant for Pollinators too! The reason they do well ? Because they're a member of the Olive family, originating in tough situations. We've planted privet where nothing else can survives as semi-evergreen stand-alone shrubs & hedges. Pollinators love the small white flowers (see below), however, pruning often removes the flower buds thus you don't see them. You can even prune into a train!
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