Tell me your best shrubs ever

[MrsBertBibby]

So our back neighbours have made our dreams come true and our hideous back fence and related lonicera hedge, brambles, nettles and crap are gone. Once they have sorted the retaining wall and fence, we aim to plant lovely flowering shrubs in front of the fence, for colour, bee forage, and year round gorgeousness. And limited trimming /pruning.

So, what are your best shrubs? High as you like, one end profound shade, one end loads of sun, chalky soil, but not too chalky.

Some lovely climbers for the sunny area would be hoineysuckle, passionflower and abutilon - some of which flower from april to october.
Partial shade - I'd go for clematis.
Definitely Daphne for gorgeous scent in winter.
In a sheltered spot an acer which changes leaf colour.
Dogwood is gorgeous in winter.

Sarah113 you can buy small Amelanchier and train them into a bush. Mine came from the Telegraph Garden Shop

Sadly climbers are out, as the fence is hellishly expensive and we don't want to upset the neighbours. Although happily they are now outed as massive bee fans, so we don't have to worry about them getting antsy about our bees. Result!

I'm taking notes here!

Ooh, I hadn't thought of acers. Hmmm. The neighbours have sadly demolished a rather lovely one that poked up above the fence. Their garden now looks like some miniature open cast mine.

I have a shrub / tree - think it’s some sort of spindle - has lovely flowers in th winter - they are red and open to an orange berry

Going to go and look out some of the shrubs mentioned here

Oh! Exochorda macrantha - it’s a bit non de script for a lot of the year but in may, it is just breathtaking, a waterfall of gorgeous white flowers on arching stems. Worth the wait!

Shameless bump coz I need to write all these down tomorrow.

Tree peony from seed! I have seeds! I don't suppose @UtterlyDesperate's grandfather is still around to give me some hints?

Unfortunately, he's been dead for twenty years now @Footle

BUT be prepared for them to take ages to germinate etc. I seem to think it was a two year process from sewing until shoots came up. Iirc he used heated propagators followed by standing the pots on watering trays lined with clay pellets for a further two years. I think patience and luck is equally important!

Hmm. I might take a rain check. The tree peony I have isn't all that happy or flowery anyway. Respect to your late DGF.

It's definitely a labour of love! But he was a plantsman through and through.

I can send you one of the daughter plants through the post later in the spring if you would like one, though? V happy to spread the tree peony love! Actually, too, as well as taking forever to germinate, they take forever to do anything much - until they get to about 20/25 and then there's no reining the buggers in!

What about little fruit trees? Pears, tasty little miniature plums, apples... I wish I had a proper garden!

I bought a smallish tree peony in the garden centre two years ago. Planted it where I wanted it to stay as i understand they don’t like to be moved. It has barely grown at all, so dont hold your breath with the seeds ...

Oh my goodness. We had a little recce to RHS Wisley yesterday. So, Daphne's name is totally on the list. Good lord the scent! In fact we may get a second one nearer the house and evict a rather poorly-placed forsythia. There was a gorgeous variegated d odora, and lots of this one

www.rhs.org.uk/plants/97343/Daphne-bholua-Jacqueline-Postill/Details

Which was delightfully air-scenting.

There was a lack of really satisfyingly dragonish mahonia.

There was a most interesting this called egdworthia chrysanthi which also had deliciously scented flowers, which might also make the cut.

Need to balance out the planting for year round interest, I think it is nearly time to go measure the space and start planning.

Wisley is just glorious. Making Wakehurst look very ordinary just now.

Oh and we are very much thinking about something corkscrew ish. There was an amazing old corkscrew hazel tree grown by Bowles himself, it was stunning. So I think something that does that will go in somewhere.

Bugger it, I need a bigger garden. And a LOT more money!

Check the height of the corkscrew hazel though. We had one that grew rapidly into a massive tree and we had to take it down (cost ££££) as neighbours complained about it. Not all of them are shrubs.

Oh I've got a corkscrew hazel. They are lovely this time of year, sparrows keep eating the catkins too :)

Oh not necessarily thinking about corkscrew hazel : almost certainly too high, especially as it would block their sun, which they've spent megabucks maximising. But there were other shrubs that do the corkscrewing thing.

Lovely thread, I'm frantically taking notes
I had a little Daphne once, it died saving up for another one.
I echo Christmas box, amazing smell

Yes be careful on the corkscrew items. We had a corkscrew willow. Triffid. Had to be dug up and stump killer put down as refused to die.

Up the road someone has a lovely little corkscrew hazel and it hardly grows. I could get on with that!

UtterlyDesperate ( sorry to hear that ), thanks for the offer but the one tree peony I have is enough. Happy to send seeds to anyone though.
GQT yesterday was banging on about daphnias yesterday and they sounded a bit fragile.

I enjoy the fact that the RHS website ntry states "resents transplanting".

I shall have to iplayer GQT though.

My word, if you'd told 20 year old me I would say that at 50, I'd have made like a daphne and resented it. Hard.

We have Christmas box by our front door. It smells like someone is baking vanilla cakes. Everyone comments on it.