Spring colour from evergreens

At this time of year, evergreens play quite a part in the garden. Deciduous plants are about to come into their own, but evergreens really have carried the area through for the last few months.

There has been lots of colour from the bulbs, and many deciduous shrubs flower before their leaves really appear, but the plants with evergreen leaves bulk the garden out.

The azaras are good shrubs with microphylla providing a wonderful scent of chocolate. It has tiny flowers and it is fun to get children to find the buds. They usually do as their sense of smell is so much better than ours.

Azara dentata has bigger flowers which come into bloom a bit later on. They are like yellow pin cushions and everybody can see them against the glossy green leaves.

All of the mahonias are out now, following mahonia charity which flowers at the beginning of winter. Mahonia aquifolium smarag is a bright shrub and is very welcome at the beginning of the year. It is followed shortly after by its brother, mahonia apollo.

They look the same when not in flower and, in my opinion, are much better than the original Oregon grape which is what the American shrub is called at home.

Choisya ternata is another shrub that is green all year through and again there are several to choose from. Choisya sundance is gold and is a very good shrub. It likes to be in the light, so that it is able to keep its gold colour, but it will certainly brighten up a corner.

I like choisya aztec pearl - it has leaves that are not so heavy, and white flowers.

The final shrub for this time of year is pieris. This is the evergreen plant that shows off its wonderful scarlet leaves as it produces new ones. There are many different varieties of it, with a spectacular array of bright colours to choose from.

The most well-known is forest flame which has white flowers at the end of the winter and into spring. Tickled pink is lots of fun. The flowers are pink and provide a lovely contrast against the glossy leaves.

There is even a red one now which is called valley valentine. Sometimes the new red leaves get caught by the frost, which is a shame. But it is it is well worth the risk at this time of year, as the plant looks so good when it escapes the cold weather.

By Pat Edwards