Please can anyone identify these shrubs?

[TranquilityofSolitude]

I have 2 shrubs I can't identify and would be grateful for any ideas. I doubt that they are unusual but I still can't find them. The green one has palmate, quite tough leaves and white flowers. It has a woody trunk and some of the older ones in our garden have split in half. I want to know how to manage it because I have 3 of them and they are taking over the garden!

The evergreen one is choisya ternata - Mexican orange blossom. I think the variety is 'aztec pearl'.

I think the other one is spirea japonica.

Shaping - I would prune back the choisya after it flowers in May (don't do it now, as the blossom smells lovely) to get it to bush up and be less straggly. Maybe aim for a roundish ball shape about the height of the left hand branches as you look at it in the picture. Thereafter, it only needs a light touch. The picture is of a different variety of choisya, but you sort of get the idea.

Spirea - I would tackle this now, and you should still get flowers in summer. I would aim for a slightly more compact shape, but perhaps take something off most of the branches. It should look smashing.

Both like the sun, so maybe consider whether they're in the right place too (hard to tell in your picture).

I do admire your wall and railings! Very smart.

Thank you very much. That's a great help. They are precisely in the wrong place - in a north-facing spot. The wall faces east, so warms up in the morning and provides a bit of shelter I suppose.

I will leave the choisya for a bit and tackle the spirea now. It looks very straggly so would be much improved by a trim.

Sorry, coming back with another question!

When I went out to prune the spirea I realised there are two smaller spireas underneath it. Both have about 10 shoots from the centre so they are fairly well-established. Can I move them? If so, when would be best? It would be nice to put them somewhere sunnier and I have plenty of space in borders to fill.

Oooh, yes, you can move them if you do it straight away (ideally, you'd do it before the leaves came out, but it's still just about early enough). Just make sure they get loads and loads of water afterwards in this hot weather, and dig in a nice amount of compost in a hole about twice the size of the rootball. And be aware that they'll need a bit of TLC for a couple of weeks (especially water).

If they are in fine fettle, you could just use those and get rid of the larger, stragglier one.

Oh good. I'll do it now then. I think I'll move one of the smaller ones and see how the biggest one fares now that I have cut it back a bit. The smallest one only has a couple of leaves at the moment and it's not that warm here (well, it is today but we haven't had much warm weather here) so I think it should be OK to move. The hardest part will be getting in there with a spade.

I have a choisya- not sure of variety but think same as picture above that i planted last year and it hasnt grown at all. Isnt in a very sunny spot am I better off moving it or is there anything else I can do? I gave it a good feed last week in the hope that would perk it up.

pink - sometimes newly-planted shrubs take time to start to show growth - choisyas are happy in shade - they just don't have as many flowers as when they're in sun.

thanks Bearleigh- will persevere! I'm fully resigned to this taking years to settle in/grow! I planted some tulips last autumn that have come up as little dwarf tulips! which I am putting down to warm winter - will see how they go next year.