Please help me ID the shrubs in my garden

[Lemontwist]

I have lived here for 8 years now and while I have reasonably successful maintained the garden but have no idea if I'm pruning things correctly and if I could make more of some of the plants here.
Could anyone help in identifying some of the shrubs I have?
The first has dark purple leaves and is flowering at the moment with purple/red flowers with 5 petals on each

I downloaded Candide, it has an image capture so you just take a photo of leaves/ flowers and it identifies them.

Difficult without a picture, but could be one of the following:

Loreopetalum
Cotinus
Chaenomeles
Or a variety of Hebe

Could be one of many things, these are just a few suggestions, I am sorry that this is not more helpful!

Sorry, I thought I uploaded a picture. Will try again

That looks, judging by the bark and stem, to be an ornamental cherry or possibly a cultivated crab apple?

Beautiful blossom, whatever it is!

We need @MereDintOfPandiculation who is brilliant at identifying things

@TW2013 thank you, I will try that

I'd guess an ornamental cherry, especially with that bark, but I'm no expert.

Love this game. More photos please, and if at all possible can you do one that shows the overall size and shape of the plant and another closeup of the flowers/leaves? Thank you!

Here are more pictures. It is really beautiful this time of year but seems to have shot up in size recently since we had to sadly remove a beautiful cherry tree a couple of years ago.
Excuse the state of the wall, we are currently fixing it 😆

I think maybe Chinese quince

Certainly a member of the prunus genus, so a plum, cherry, peach, nectarine, almond etc. My money is on a species of cherry.

General rule of thumb, if you don't know what you're dealing with, is to prune after flowering, unless it's very late in the year in which case you could postpone pruning to March.

Beekeeper1 Why do you say Prunus and not Malus? Not challenging your id, just find Rosaceae trees hard to id from their blossom. I think it's between cherry and apple, and to my mind the blossom is more apple like than cherry like (rather scratty compared to very regular cherry flowers), and the leaves also (look a bit more leathery than cherry), but I don't know an ornamental purple leaved apple...

I've found one, which doesn't particularly add to my argument
www.amazon.co.uk/Malus-Mokum-Purple-Apple-Supplied/dp/B071NTZPL4?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

On the other hand, the only purple-leaved Prunus I can find is either Kanzan, with double flowers, or a whole lot with much paler pink flowers.

General rule of thumb, if you don't know what you're dealing with, is to prune after flowering, unless it's very late in the year in which case you could postpone pruning to March
Thank you, that's helpful.

I'm even more keen to know what it is now though. I thought it would be an easy ID

Purple prince crab apple! The leaves on the picture I've found look more green but the flowers are almost identical

.@MereDintOfPandiculation - yes, I agree that the blossom is more indicative of a Malus than a Prunus and my id is/was solely based on the fact that I do not know of a Malus with purple foliage, so came to the conclusion that it was more likely, by default, to be a cherry, rather than being able to absolutely 100% identify it. Just goes to show that one should never jump to conclusions or make assumptions as, by doing so, one can make oneself look an ass!

It looks as though Lemontwist has put us all out of our misery with a potential id!

Beekeeper1 Lovely that you were going through exactly the same thought process as me!

@Beekeeper1. I was down the garden today in the group of flowering cherries which we inherited from the previous owner where we hang the hammock, and I thought about you, and happened to look at the dark pink cherry. I thought "that's got very apple-like flowers", then looked at the leaves, and realised they were faintly downy, without the tiny spiky teeth of the cherry ... it's not a cherry, it's a purple-leaved apple! I shall look on it with more favour in the future.

So the purple leaved Malus that I didn't think existed has been sharing a garden with me for the last 30 years

@MereDintOfPandiculation - just goes to show that one's garden can always be counted upon to throw up surprises! I have only been in my current house for two years (the previous owners were clearly not gardeners), it is still very much a 'work in progress' but there are still things to find!

I was in my last house for 31 years, a wilderness when I moved in and I knew every plant, tree and shrub that was in the garden, since I put them all in. Sadly, I gather, that it is reverting to wilderness status,. Heartbreaking to think of, but it is always said that one should never look back. How true!

But I am pleased to hear that you have had a pleasant surprise with your purple leaved Malus

I think mine probably counts as wilderness But it's a very productive wilderness in terms of fruit, and a diverse wilderness, so although it's not particularly large, it takes 15-30 minutes to walk round and look at everything.

The Malus is fighting it out with a Berberis at the moment. It's very old, so maybe the solution is to find a space to plant a new one. But it'll have to take its place in the queue behind Fothergillia - my current one is fighting with a Hamamelis mollis, Viburnum carlessii. a flowering cherry, and a red-flowered shrubby honeysuckle. And I don't want to get rid of any of them!

@MereDintOfPandiculation - sounds like a designed wilderness, the very best kind! Mine is similar, room for wildflowers (in fact many are actively encouraged!), unmown margins along the hedge bottoms, hedges of native species which are only cut once a year in late summer, lawns full of daisies, dandelions, clovers and self heal. Not a Chelsea Show garden by any means, but I would hate that anyway. Here's to wild gardens🥂