Sometimes it’s easy to think that gardens only look good from spring until summer, but if you plant the right shrubs in your garden you’ll have something good to look at all year round!
Here are my top 5 shrubs that, if planted in the right conditions, give you stunning, architectural talking points in your garden:
5 – Dogwood (Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’) – fiery red stems and elegant green leaves.
4 – Eucalyptus ‘Azura’ – Tightly packed Grey foliage thats a perfect backdrop to brightly coloured perennials. Keep an eye on it though it can grow very big!
3 – Rhododendron ‘Cosmopolitan’ – Gorgeous dark green leaves with large buds that explode into pale pink flowers.
2 – Choisya ternata ‘Sundance’ – its lime green foliage makes it an excellent alternative to box for hedging.
1 – Euonymous Japonicus – This version is variegated, tall and lollipop shaped – makes a great focal point.
Plus I give you a good look round my garden to show you how I use shrubs especially topiarized box, yew and bay to create structure that looks good across the seasons.
What would be in your top 5? Comment below!
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My name’s Alan Titchmarsh, and I’m absolutely delighted to welcome you to my YouTube channel! I’ve been a gardener for over 60 years and I can safely say that gardening is one of life’s greatest joys, and I can’t wait to share it with you.
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summer flowers are all very well for giving you instant appeal but what every garden needs really is year round structure and you get that from [Music] shrubs of course if you go down to the garden center you’ll find enormous temptations here are five that I particularly [Music] like winter doesn’t just have to be evergreens take this dogwood here this cornice you can see now lovely green leaves coming on it and at the chute tips here flat heads of white flowers so you get creamy white flowers in spring green leaves through the summer but when the leaves fall in winter the color of those stems is a vibrant crimson and if they’re growing in moist soil which dog woods like you can cut these stems almost down to about 6 in 15 cm come March and then they will put on new growth because it’s the new growth that always has this bright [Music] color eucalyptus doesn’t lose its leaves at all this is an Australian native and if you plant it as a tree it will be massive be very very careful when you plant a eucalyptus and let it go it does however have very bright foliage aromatic but if you let it grow up and enjoy this foliage and cut it for flower arranging and keep cutting it or when it starts to get too big chop it right down in spring you can keep it young and low and you’ll keep getting this lovely foliage from this variety here called Azora it does have as well as a vigorous habit if you let it go a vigorous root system don’t plant it near drains don’t plant it near house foundations out in the open and kept under control like this it’s [Music] fine when it comes to spring color from shrubs roodendrrons are hard to beat these big fat buds here are going to turn into vast clusters of bright flower they can be white they can be yellow purple crimson a wonderful array one disadvantage they will not grow in chalky or limestone soils they need acid soil the acidity of soil is measured on the pH scale very acid soil is around about four on pH scale neutral is seven and very alkaline is up to about 14 but if you’ve got soil which is over seven sort of eight on the pH scale it will be too chalky too alkaline to grow them well they can’t absorb magnesium from the soil so they go yellow in the leaf not pretty but if you’re on acid soil and the majority of Britain is then rodendons are great they make great domeshaped shrubs some of them 20t tall but the majority usually about head height and they’re easy to keep in check just dead head them after flowering and at this time of year look forward to this spectacular show from these big fat [Music] buds if you’re wanting sunshine all the year round nothing is brighter than the yellow led version of the Mexican orange blossom Choisia this is a variety called Sundance and you can see how bright this young growth is and even brighter shoots are to come the lovely thing about this is it will form a rounded shrub it’s quite fast growing but it will take clipping you can really cut it quite hard back and it will come up i’ve used it as topiary specimens all the way up my drive the plain green kind evergreen for a sort of plump cushion of a shrub up to about here if you let it but easy to control by hard pruning in spring [Music] if you love topiary but you lack either the time or the patience you can get them ready done this is a glorious variegated eonymous you can get plain green types as well central stem grown as a standard this lollipop on top of a sturdy stem and lightly clipping this over to keep it in shape you can let it get bigger and three or four of these down the side of a path rather like the kind of thing you can do with you good idea that isn’t it so if you take the trouble to scout out a range of plants some evergreens some which come into a different kind of glory like the cornness when they lose their leaves you’ll end up as I have here with plants that will give you form color and interest right the way through the [Music] year i love topiary and for me here on chalky soil U is brilliant the only kind of soil that you doesn’t like is soil that gets water logged elsewhere it grows really well putting on about a foot a year i clip them over right at the end of summer and then they stay crisp right the way through till the following spring what’s better if you want lower growing topiary is to use box now it’s got a bad name recently and justifiably because it gets box blight which is a disease which affects the foliage and box moth the caterpillars of which eat it but we’re getting more resistant strains it’s a shame just to wipe box out of your garden if you grow it well and you grow a strong leave variety of box it makes wonderful curbs along the edges of borders i can spray it with an organic spray called Zentara every 3 or four weeks during the summer and that for me keeps a good control going if you’re looking for stature and you’re a good cook you need a bay tree you can have a little lollipop in a pot if you want if there’s no space or you got a doorstep or a balcony or you can have one like mine we call this the minion it must be a good 15 ft tall i get it clipped every autumn into this enormous great dome i love the fact that it’s a good dark green backdrop to other brighter flowers but really it’s the size and the crispness of that dome outline which really gives me a thrill it’s wonderful to look at [Music] i’ll be posting new videos each week so subscribe to the channel below and let’s get gardening together
44 Comments
Do NOT plant roaddies anywhere please! They are invasive and kill forests and ground cover plants. Do some research.
Love Potentilla fruticosa 'White Lady’ Not evergreen I know, but it’s impactful, flowering from late March to mid October. A nice addition to the garden. Not very fussy where it sits but I’ve found partial shade with early sun brings out the best in it.
Dear Mr. Titchmarsh, what do you think of Hamamelis, camelias, Winterjasmin and other Sorts of insect feeders through the cold autumn and Winter season? Perhaps you could inform on that subject as well: what to do for insects in Winter. I would Love to hear more intoned in your pleasant voice with your friendly personality. I as many germans Love to listen to you: i feel even soothed when i am completely tired to listen to you, Mr. Titchmarsh. That is an absolute compliment: every hungarian i would in such a sensitive vulnerable condition Like tiredness after a hard day of pruning in my hungarian swamp Garden rather kill. I Love to hear from you and Wish you and your wife the best. God Bless you!
You omit my favourite – Ceratostigma plumbaginoides – hardy plumbago.
Give Arborvitae and Boxwood a try!
Want a green, low-maintenance privacy screen? Plant some Arborvitae. Want clean, classy edges? Add Boxwood. Easy to grow, great to look at — your yard will thank you!
Its funny when ever I hear the word Shrub I always think the knights of Ni! Holy Grail…
Love this! Currently looking for shrubs that do well in shade as large tree and neighbours fence is stopping even the grass from growing!
My small garden is in pots, I have Viburnum, Forsythia ,Pieris, Sarcoccca winter gem, Ceanothus, and Weigela red prince . I would love a eucalyptus but need a small potable one , Any suggestions on what suitable please ? Bushy not standard
Hi Alan thanks for showing me your 5 shrubs you like 👍 to big for my garden one of my is harvest dead it needs watering 😀 with mite survive if i will bay another one it was called a clematis David ❤❤❤❤
Wonderful suggestions, Mr. Titchmarsh! Thank you. I can say that several of those do work in our desert climate as well. I so enjoy your program.
Such a wealth of information, thank you for sharing. Point of interest, here in Northwestern Ontario Canada, red osier dogwood grows quite plentiful the wild and the red stems are especially vibrant and showy all winter against our thick blanket of snow … also lovely to have in the winter garden.
Your very kind to share your own garden and all your ideas and experience . Thankyou
I love my prunus glandulosa, sweet almond bush, now a spectacular small tree. Fills my garden with a wonderful scent in the summertime. Blackbirds nest in it every year too. ❤
I have only just changed my soil thats chalky lime my poor rhododendron suffered i put it in a pot with ericaceous soil and bingo it cane go life and has started to flower such a joy ❤
My step-father, who is now in his 80s, great granddad, was head gardener on a private estate up here in northeast Scotland. Great granddad lived in a cottage on the estate and planted a simple box knot garden at the front of this cottage, at least 130 years ago.
I had a friend who was a tenant in this same cottage for over 20 years, who unfortunately used to trim the box with an electric hedge trimmer 😱 . And it looked, to put it mildly, very un-box like. So me, being a very keen gardener, took lots of cuttings, and 95% of them struck.
So now, in my cottage on the same estate, I have box hedges too, nothing fancy like great-great-granddad grew, just a circle, and 2 straight pieces framing a patio, but they look strong, healthy and like Box should look. Plus, they are trimmed into shape with hand shears.
Sadly, the original box hedge is still being violated with an electric hedge cutter but by a different tenant now. 🫣
choisya, viburnum, bay leaf, cherry laurel, euonymus, perhaps fatsia 😊
I garden on a fairly neutral soil but I've found Rhododendrons on an Inkarho rootstock are brilliant. There is even a small leaved variant that can be topiarised.
Hi Alan – great to see you here on YouTube and I’m enjoying your videos. I’m a big fan of shrubs for an interesting mid-layer and my favourites are Daphnes (particularly bholua cultivars and retusa), Syringa meyeri Palibin, Hamamelis, Pittosporums and Crinodendron hookerianum (even though it’s a bit ‘hit or miss’) depending on winter weather here in the Black Isle.
Rhodo, hydrangea, boxwood, camellia, yew.
Witch Hazel is one of my favourites. Green in Summer, with glorious flowers in February. Cheers up the Winter garden, promising the birth of Spring to follow.
You're garden is so bad I'm still learning ķ would love to know what to cut down in September i have a baby jasmine plant and have tied this up ŵkth string but would trellis be better it's bh the fence fence
We have a box within a large pot with 5 heads to it that we bought nearly 3 years ago when we were complete novices and it isn’t doing so well 😮 parts of each plant are just dead! We have been feeding it frequently and refreshed top layer with new soil. Any other suggestions, Alan?
Vibernum is a good evergreen shrub, diverse shades, pretty flowers. Love, love, love your garden! xx
I must be very "common," as I only really like flowering shrubs. My current favourites are:
1. Viburnum – Snowball Opulus
2. Choisya – Ternata (White Dazzler)
3. Hydrangea – paniculata varieties (plus Annabelle)
4. Ceanothus
5. Spirea
Also like Excordia, Syringa (Lilac), Myrtle, Camelia, Viburnam Mariesii and is Quince a shrub or tree?
Thank you so much for this – you have always been and always will be my favourite gardening presenter & your gardens are totally stunning ❤ I agree viburnums are lovely shrubs but for me photinia is hard to beat – both the better known Red Robin & the variegated variety – bought one as a small plant a couple of years ago – let it grow to around 3 ft & have trimmed it into a small multi- stemmed tree – just loving it 😊
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Now then! I have 3 shrubs you suggest and managed to turn an overgrown Bay into a standard. The topiary in your garden is stunning what a delight to see. Long live gardening I say🪴🪴(I'm a Yorkshire lass so I expect you understand my greeting!!
We have a huge variety of shrubs here but I'm a beekeeper as well as a gardener, so no rhododendron (I'm sorry to say). Unfortunately bees like it, but honey derived from it is (apparently) toxic to humans.
Isn’t SHRUB a funny word. Although I love them for my garden.
After 45 years gardening my top 5 are Erica's, Rhododendrons, Camellias, Cornus.and Berberis. None take over if you are injured for a few years, and if they do, a prune aand they are back performing perfectly.
We had dogwood in our garden. Eventually i got rid of it because there were shoots coming up all over the place, it was almost as bad as bamboo.
I Love topiary too! Love your show.
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The previous owners of our house had a single hebe shrub in the front garden. I quite like it because it looks good all year round and puts out little white flowers in the summer. Aside from pruning once a year, it's very low maintenance.
Viburnum, pittosporum, camellia, California lilac xx
Thank you. 🥰🥰🌺
I have another suggestion – Skimmia Rubella. Amazing evergreen shrub, foliage from yellow to deep green tinged pink, and scented flowers in Spring. Also small domed conifers – mature Arborvitae Fire Chief are spectacular in my garden.
The spray for box is spelt ? And what are the long leave box varieties to buy? PS Love that glass globe water feature,real focal point !
I live in zone 5b in Hamilton ON and just discovered your channel 🎉❤🇨🇦✌🏻
I love viburnum, buddleia, golden smokebush, Spirea, yews and hydrangeas 🌸💕
At about the 6:19 mark in the video I noticed your round fountain in background. At least I think it’s a fountain…it looks like a large glass ball! It’s breathtaking! I’m so fascinated as to how this perfectly round water is created! I determined to learn more about this. I hope you can help, I love this!
No. Just no to Rhododendrons.
At the moment I'm very much into dogwoods and Choysia. Some may consider Choysia boring, but it's a real workhorse as our UK temperatures gradually get hotter and hotter.
I would add cinquefoil shrub to this list! Comes in different colours and blooms for a long time.
The trees with the gorgeous white bark behind Alan, does anybody know what species they are? Are they just a white birch? I've never seen such smooth bark!