Master My Garden Podcast
Master My Garden Podcast
- EP281 Beyond Perennials: 10 Magnificent Flowering Shrubs for Year-Round Interest
Perennial borders may be all the rage in contemporary garden design, but have we forgotten the humble flowering shrub? In this eye-opening episode, we explore how these garden stalwarts are being overlooked despite offering year-round structure, extended seasons of interest, and spectacular flowers when perennials lie dormant.
From the architectural presence of Cornus kousa to the intoxicating fragrance of Philadelphus, we'll guide you through ten magnificent flowering shrubs that deserve a place in your garden. Discover why "old-fashioned" plants like Fuchsia, Forsythia and Mahonia shouldn't be dismissed, and learn how integrating these woody wonders among your perennials creates a more dynamic, interesting garden throughout the year.
We delve into early-season performers that bring life to winter gardens – Hamamelis with its spidery blooms, Daphne with its heavenly scent, and Mahonia with its architectural form. For summer drama, we explore statement plants like Hydrangea paniculata and butterfly-magnet Buddleja. Each recommendation comes with practical advice on size, growing conditions, and optimal placement.
The message is clear: the best gardens thoughtfully combine perennials with flowering shrubs to create interest across all seasons. Whether you're designing a new border or enhancing an existing one, these ten flowering shrubs offer structure, colour, fragrance and wildlife value that perennials alone cannot provide. Ready to rediscover these forgotten garden gems?
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Until next week
Happy gardening
John
how's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 281 of master, my garden podcasts. Now, this week's episode, we're looking at the subject of flowering shrubs and I'm going to go through a list of the 10 top flowering shrubs. Well, a list of 10 great flowering shrubs and let's not call them top, because you know that's people's opinions, situations, gardens and so on. But the reason I wanted to cover this was obviously perennial borders over the last few years have become, you know, they're all the go and they're absolutely fantastic. But I think, within the context of that and when you see a lot of the gardens that are being created now, the flowering shrub is getting kind of overlooked a little bit and maybe underutilized, underused. And you know, even if you reference back to the episode a couple of weeks back with Tom Coward, he's talking about Gravetide, manor and how they have these borders. But they're underpinned with strong shrub presence and what shrubs give you, particularly in the context of a perennial border, is that they give you something that's it's going to give you well, number one it's going to give you flowering at different times of the year, but it's also going to give you a bit of structure, something, something more permanent than perennials. As you know, perennials they come up in the springtime, nice lush growth, and then they flower. Generally speaking, you're going to get start your perennial border starting to flower in sort of may ish, maybe a little bit earlier. You tend to rely on things like bulbs for your colors prior to that and then then it'll continue flowering through the right choices of perennials right through to the end of October, type time, and shrubs flowering.
Speaker 1:Shrubs, as I said, have kind of got overlooked a little bit and what ends up happening is they, they get forgotten about and then, because they're forgotten about or because they're they're less purchased, then you see less of them in in garden centers. So it's good to kind of, it's good to kind of, you know, remember them and try and not think of them. You know shrubs generally, try and not forget about them. There's, there's fantastic ones out there, like the list is endless. I'm going to talk about 10 today, maybe some other notable mentions, but and some of these would be considered, I guess, old-fashioned in, you know, in in today's terms, but if you think about it, there there's a lot of shrubs and plants that go through their phase in the limelight and you know, just even thinking back to. You know, 15, 20 years ago, say, bottle brush was everywhere. You couldn't go into a garden center without seeing beds and beds of bottler in a lot of garden centers. Now you'd do well to find one. In fact I'd say you probably wouldn't in a lot of them. And now I don't have any problems with that because I wouldn't overly like them.
Speaker 1:But the the point I'm making is that various various plants have their, have their period in the sun and you know, over the last few years that has certainly been hydrangea, annabelle, everybody's talking about it, it's in every garden center. Fantastic flowering shrub, obviously, um, but there's others and the the beauty of the correct choice is that these are going to give you several things. They're going to give you structure within a bed. Some of them will have multiple interests in that they're structurally quite nice, but obviously they have to flower. But again, through true choice you'll get a lot of these to flower, you know, when you just won't have any flower in your perennial border. They can also be really, really strong standout statement pieces, statement trees within a border or at the edge of a bed, and all of those. You know they have so many, so many benefits from that point of view. Then there's some of them that are, you know, hugely supportive to biodiversity. They're, you know, fantastic flowers. They work well in different situations, so some, some like full sun, some like shade, and then there's categories of plants that are just, you know, really really interesting, and I'm going to go through a list here. I say some of these will be, in today's terms, considered old fashioned, but at the same time, this shouldn't be overlooked, because they do have huge benefit within the garden.
Speaker 1:Before we get onto the list, it's, you know, it has been a fantastic week, weather wise. Back to, you know, really, really, really warm temperatures, and growth is phenomenally strong. At the moment we've had, you know, kind of moisture as well, as last week we were talking about fluctuations in temperatures and rain and so on, and this week we're talking about, you know, quite high temperatures, quite warm weather, nice bells of sunshine, but also a couple of showers here and there and at night time, kind of, you know, really heavy dews. So there's moisture in the ground, which means that there's a phenomenal amount of growth and, you know, has been really, really, really lush time in gardens. You'll see that everything is really growing strong and going growing really well now and so, yeah, that that's kind of the context of the week. Every week it's kind of interesting to see how things change and how quickly things can change. But, yeah, at the moment we're experiencing what we would call here almost a little mini heat wave and, yeah, it's really, really welcome so to get into the flowering shrubs.
Speaker 1:As I say, some of these now are going to be seen as old-fashioned, but they're, they're all beautiful, given different periods of interest and, as I say, it's a list of 10, some you'll agree with, some you won't. If you don't, um, good, I had a call out last week to say, um, you know anyone that was listening to the podcast to give me a shout. You know, let me know that you're there, send me an email, send me a message, and I've got a good few people, actually a couple of requests for for um, different episodes which I will cover over the couple of weeks, over the next couple of weeks, and lovely to hear from new listeners, a couple of new listeners this week who have just got into the podcast recently. As I said, there'll be some episodes featuring their questions over the next couple of weeks as well. But, you know, let me know on your list of flowering shrubs, something that's not there, that should be there, anything that's you know missing from the list, or anything that in your opinion, gee, why did you put that in there, john? That's, that's not a good shrub. So, yeah, it's always interesting to hear these. As I say, it's it's not a top 10 because it's it's a list of 10 and it won't be for everyone. Might suit your garden, might suit your situation, but it's their 10 solid performers. Each of them work their place in in most gardens.
Speaker 1:So, to start off, I'm going to start with one that is quite popular at the moment, one that is in a lot of garden centers. It featured hugely at bloom in a lot of the show gardens and it's corna cornus kusa. So cornus, there's the. The flowering their dogwoods. Flowering dogwoods are the colored stem dogwoods, the colored ones. They look nice in the winter time. Other than that, they're, and they can look, you know, they can look like a nice feature if they're block planted. It kind of gives an interest, a winter interest, in terms of color. These bright reds are these really kind of vibrant, yellowy type stems, but the flowering cornice, these are, these are, you know, they're fantastic, they're absolutely got absolutely gorgeous. Actually, the flowers on them are technically not flowers, but we won't get into that they're. They're leaves or bracts as such. So, and the main one, and the one I'm going to mention here, is cornus cusa. It's just some brilliant varieties out there.
Speaker 1:Cornus cusa china girl is one that you will see a lot of, the, you know, the most popular nurseries in ireland and garden centers in ireland stocking. It's one that featured heavily, as I say, at bloom and, timing wise, it it was looking fantastic, really nice, strong, you know, good, strong plant will perform in most gardens, again, an ideal type feature plant. So if you have, you have, you know, a, a bed that flows, and maybe there's a focal point on that bed, a corner or a standout piece or at the back of a board or a cornice. Cousa, a china garland, can look really really good, especially over time when, when they've reached full size, they can get up to, you know, kind of three meters by three and a half meters in in height, so quite wide and quite tall. So it's a large, it can be a large shrub, but it's a fantastic, beautiful, beautiful shrub, flowering shrub, although technically not flowering, but, as I say, we won't worry too much about that it. It flowers in may and june and hence the reason why it's have featured so heavily at bloom, but it is definitely one one. For the moment I don't have one, but I do. I I will be getting on a new bed or a bed that's been revamped. I guess over the next couple of months that there's definitely going to be a big, a big carnoscusa going in there. So carnoscusa, and there's loads of others carnosmas, there's loads of loads of really good flowering ones and if, as I say, a lot of the nurseries and will have them, and they'll have them at this time of the year and you'll see them at this time of the year in flower, you know. So that's kind of a good gauge. But you know, any of these you can get them at any stage of the year and then have them ready to to come out in your garden at the appropriate time next year. So number two on the list is definitely one that's going to be seen as a little bit old fashioned, and it's fuchsia.
Speaker 1:So fuchsias in Ireland there's, you know, there's parts of the country where they kind of run wild along hedges and so on, and then years ago you would have had certain certain varieties that would have been planted. They get very. They can get very, very big. But the one thing about fuchsias doesn't matter what variety or which size. So you have like the big bush varieties that really can get very, very big, up to two, three, four meters tall, and there is ones that can be kind of grown as hedges and they have their place as well.
Speaker 1:But generally speaking, the flowers are really really interesting. So they have these flowers that hang down I'm sure mostly you know them, flowers that hang down with these really long stamens that come out of them and they're just a really interesting flower and they're so intricate and there's a mountain of varieties, like thousands of varieties. You can get them as as bedding fuchsias, which again have a really interesting flower, the same type of flower that I'm talking about here. But in terms of the shrub or the hardier varieties, there's some phenomenal ones. The best ones for for a garden situation are the kind of shrubby varieties, something like a tomtom, which grows really really small, is typically fairly hardy. They they won't take a really deep frost but they're fairly hardy for most of the time for most of the country in ireland, but they're just a really and again, I acknowledge that this would certainly be seen by a lot of gardeners as old-fashioned, but in terms of a flower, there's there's very few flowering shrubs that have flowers that are as interesting as this. They don't have any value necessarily for pollinators. They typically are not scented, typically, um, but generally speaking they're. They're a fantastic looking flower and something that you know is really interesting.
Speaker 1:Hardy will grow in most places. The range of colors are typically you can have white, pink purple and there's several like maybe six different shades of pink purple that you can get. So it's always a mixture of those, but they're really, really interesting flowers. They flower, typically speak in august, september, even into october, and then there's a huge variety of sizes available. So, as I said, it can get up to really big bushy plants like three meters tall, but the likes of tomtom that I mentioned, that will stay at kind of 40 centimeters in a nice little small shape, relatively hardy, but has that nice feature of a flower, and it's just an interesting flower and something that's, you know, kind of different to what you'll see at the moment.
Speaker 1:As I say, potentially see might be seen as a little bit old-fashioned but but really really nice from a bed and plant perspective. I know you can get them as bed and plants, but from a bed and plant perspective they're brilliant. And hanging baskets, because you know the flower hangs down, as I said. So you don't necessarily get the full beauty of it while looking down at it, as it's facing downwards as well. But when you put it into a hanging basket or a window box that's up higher than the eye level and you're looking upwards at it, then you get the true beauty of the flower and that. That that is. You know they're a fascinating looking flower. So, yeah, fuchsia, number two, and again I think that one might a lot of people might think that that shouldn't be on the list, but it is a really good one.
Speaker 1:Another one that is, in my opinion, severely underused in these days. If you went back, I would say 30 years ago there was hardly a garden that didn't have a forsythia in it. Um, nowadays they're seen as old-fashioned, they are a little bit scraggly looking, so they don't suit. You know, people look at them as untidy. Um, but they, they are a fantastic flower and they're giving you a flower, kind of before the rest of your, your garden, starts to flower, and that's why I think they they can be really, really beneficial.
Speaker 1:Again, I would view it a little bit like the cornice. I would view it as something that stands on its own. You don't block plant these necessarily. It stands on its own in a particular spot. You allow it to take up that lime light at that time of the year. Uh, it can get big, so they generally can get, you know, two meters, three meters. They're quite woody, looking on the stems, so that they're not a compact, tidy looking plant necessarily. But when that's in full flower in March, april time, they really do put on a show that vibrant yellow.
Speaker 1:A brilliant variety is one called Beatrix Farland. It's difficult enough to get in Ireland there is some garden centers throughout, nurseries with them, but you won't see it everywhere and it's one that will go go to two or three meters tall. But when that stands on its own in a particular spot that you can see and that you know draws your eye to it, you will see a mass of yellow at that time of the year and it will be in contrast to a lot of what else is going on in your garden, especially if we get a really cold spring when things are just not, you know, waking up the way they normally would, and then you just get this mass of vibrant yellow flowers and for that reason I think it's a it's. It's one that's, you know, really worth having in in most gardens. Then on to the next one. Again, it's this one now is it's going to be liked and available in in most garden centers at certain times of the year, and it's Daphne, and there's a load of different varieties and they really do, you know, they really do stand up and again, they're giving you flour when nothing else is really flowering. So Daphne will flower, depending on variety, january, february, march, april, potentially into May. So at that period of time where everything else is looking fairly grim, except for a few bulbs, different bulbs here and there, you can have the likes of a daphne in flower, and that, that, for me, is is a huge, is a huge win. And this is where mixing the likes of these through your perennial border gives you something different. So your perennial border obviously prime the whole way through the summer and and into the autumn. But in those winter months, you know, so november, december, january, february, march, april, those months can be quite bleak. Looking at a perennial border and these, the likes of these shrubs just give you something to catch your eye, a bit of color, a bit of vibrancy at that time of year, and that's why, why they win.
Speaker 1:There is a lot of varieties, um, probably one of the best ones is merizium ruba. Um, it's very good one. Again, it's size wise, not not too big. We'll go to 1.2, 1.5 meters and that's you know, brilliant, brilliant plant. There's loads of other daphanies. You can get them really miniature, like that will grow up to 40, 40 centimeters and then bigger again, up to two, three meters. Different daphnies will suit different situations, but they're all giving you that kind of really early season flowering and for that reason they're again worth having in your garden.
Speaker 1:Number five is one that's you know probably nobody's going to disagree with too much on the list. It's hydrangea, but hydrangea beniculata, and there is again a lot of varieties here, really good ones, limelight. There's the one that's kind of recognizable by its its name pinky, winky. But they're all very, very good, very, very good, very prolific flowers and quite strong when planted in blocks together. So if you have them down along a walkway on either side, they're tall, going, you know, two, two to three and a bit meters and they kind of have arching foliage with art, with flowers on them. So, again, as I say, on both sides of a walkway you can have these kind of flowers that are kind of leading you down a walkway or a driveway or something like that. They're fantastic, they, they get really big, they flower prolifically and they're flowering again while your perennial border is kind of at its peak. This is when you'll have these, but they are such a standout on their own and they typically they're not going to be ones that you will typically put into your, say, perennial border, but they're ones that you will use as a block planting or a feature to draw you through through an area, um, ideal, along you know, certain paths or or things like that, through your garden. And what a brilliant one hydrangea paniculata and recommended variety limelight, which is quite commonly got the really white, vibrant flowers that typically can have a pink hue, um, towards the, towards the start and towards the end of it. But they're beautiful, really big flower, stand out, a standout plant.
Speaker 1:And the next one, again, I'm going for one that's going to give you this kind of this early, this really early flower, because I think these are, as I say, they're going to give you that interest when there's not much else giving that interest. And this one is is quite well known. It's Hamamelis mollus and witch hazel commonly known as. There's some brilliant varieties of it, and palida is probably one of the best, but the flowers themselves are really really interesting. So, like I said, with the Tom Tom or the fuchsias in general, they have really really interesting flowers and flowers that you don't really see on it, on that are, you know, don't have a similar flower to anything else, and I think that that kind of makes it a standout, makes it a little bit of an interest, and that's why they, they, you'll see a lot of them at that time of the year. So the flower really, really early, you're going to get flowers from them in sort of January, february, march, that sort of time frame, depending on where you're living and depending on what variety you have as well. But they're going to be really unusual, really nice at that time of the year and they're hardy, will grow in most areas, like most situations.
Speaker 1:Just a brilliant, reliable flower situations. Just a brilliant, reliable flower. When you get them in the early years they're small and maybe then the flowers don't last overly long and the flowers themselves are kind of delicate, almost spidery like looking, and in those early years they can be a little bit underwhelming. But when they fully form, when they get big, when they, when they create a, you know a substantial, large shrub, then that flower becomes way, way more interesting and quite stunning at that time of the year, especially nice on a frosty morning where you get, you know, the white ground, and then this, this flower just just pops it, you know, really really does stand out. So that's a really good one. And you can see, here there's kind of a team, I guess, where I am kind of stitching in a lot of winter and early spring color here. So that was number six on the list. Number seven on the list is again flowering this period.
Speaker 1:This one will definitely be seen as old fashioned to a certain extent and it's Mahonia, so there's loads of them. Mahonia media charity is probably the most well known, but again it has a kind of an interest from lots of perspectives. Now these can get very big depending on what variety you get. So you can get them again in miniature varieties that will only grow maybe two to three foot tall or, you know, up to a meter tall, but you can also get really, really big ones that are going to grow kind of three, four meters tall, maybe a meter and a half to two in width. So really big, big, solid shrubs, large shrubs, and so they do need a bit of a space. They prefer to be in in shade, but they will do really well in in sun as well. But the one thing they do like is moist, humus, humus, rich soil. If they don't have, if they have that, but they don't have good drainage, then they don't tend to do well. So you want to have good drainage, but humus, humus, rich soil, so make sure you're mulching around them quite a lot. But that's a brilliant one.
Speaker 1:It's the in terms of flowering. It's yellow and yellow, only you don't get anything else. But again, the flower is quite big and it's flowering at a time of the year where you don't you're not getting you know you're not getting much else by way of flower. Lots of different varieties out there. With the correct varieties, you know, or a mixture of varieties, you could technically have flower from November time right through to the end of April, which is a really long period of time generally speaking. Any of the single varieties, they are quite long flowering as well. So you're going to get flower over a couple of months, but with a combination of a couple of varieties the early ones, some of the later ones you can have flower for that long period of time, which is really, really useful. They are quite big, though.
Speaker 1:The leaves themselves are interesting looking not particularly nice looking in my opinion, but they, but they, are interesting looking. You know, they look a little bit um, what would you what were their structural but not necessarily a little bit, a little bit untidy looking at times. The leaves themselves are big, they they look kind of spiky, um, but in all in all, it's a plant that's well worth its place because it gives you this huge pop of yellow color, especially as it matures, this huge pop of yellow color, um, at that early part of the year. I've personally seen these with a mountain of of bees on them. Um, people will debate whether they're any good for for early season pollinators or not, but I have personally seen a quite a big one, and it was. It was in a back garden in a town and it was absolutely teeming with bees. Now it was probably february, march time. It was quite a back garden in a town and it was absolutely teeming with bees. Now it was probably February, march time, it was quite a sunny day, but it was alive with bees on a particular day and it was really interesting to see that because, you know, sometimes people would say that they're not necessarily useful for pollinators, but that certainly was attracting the interest on that day.
Speaker 1:So that's number seven on the list, that's mahonia. Number eight on the list is chysia ternata, a good one. Aztec pearl is a good one. It is again. It's giving you the flower, kind of before your borders would really kick off, and it's april, may, flowering, so it's a really, really good one. Nice, interesting leaves can be quite good in pots as well. Size wise, again, you can get it different, different varieties, but typically speaking, you're going to be able to keep them nice. You're going to stay nice and small if you're up to 1.5 meters in height. So they'll they'll be quite strong in a bed, but not dominant or not overtaking it. So quite a good one, again giving you that slightly earlier flower. So really, really, really good one. Don't have one myself in the garden, but a really solid performer. Again would be somewhat kind of an old style one, but again a really, really interesting plant from a leaf perspective and from a flowering perspective. Number nine is well recognizable and it's buddleia butterfly bush. So there's, I suppose there's, loads of varieties of this.
Speaker 1:It's known because butterflies thrive, you know, really swarm to it and you know, again, a little bit like the, a little bit like the forsythia, it can look scraggy, you know, the plant itself is not overly, overly nice looking, but you can get really brilliant, really brilliant flowers on it. Um, there's one called royal blushed. That's a really deep purple, large cone shaped flower and it's just, you know, when it grows. Well, when it's in full flower it looks fantastic. Now it is flowering. You're quite late in the year. It's going to be july, august, september's when you get your flowering again. Suitable, because that's when the butterflies, hopefully, will be coming out. Um, definitely less than the last few years, by the way, but there's, you know that that is the time when we will, when we will see them and they flock to the likes of a buddleia. Loads of varieties. Again, it can be quite, can grow quite big, but they can be kept small as well. But the royal blushed is a really, really nice one. Number nine on the list then no, that's number nine, buddleia. And number 10 on the list is probably my favorite one on the whole list and it's philadelphia's mock or philadelphia's version of mock orange.
Speaker 1:So the I have it in the garden. I actually got it from mary and gash gardens and it's out of any plant it has the most distinct smell. It's it's a beautiful, beautiful perfumed plant. The flowers it's flowering now. So flowers kind of you'll. You'll typically get it flowering sort of early june right through to july doesn't last, that's how long actually flowering, wise. But the smell of it is just phenomenal. It's not like you know, it's a different smell to, say, any roses that you might have or any other scented plants. Really, it's kind of has a smell all to its own. But on a, on a, on a really warm evening, if you're anywhere near that, there's a kind of a scent in the air. It kind of hangs in the air whatever, whatever type of you know smell it is. It kind of hangs in the air and it's a really nice kind of deep smell.
Speaker 1:Um, the flower itself is beautiful, quite small, but there's loads of them. So when you're looking at it as a, as a, you know as a farm shrub, and it will grow to a big shrub like this, going to get to three meters, you know, three meters tall, about a meter and a half wide, so quite big. But it will be a mass of white flowers and because there's so many of these they're quite a small flower, but because there's so many of them on it it just looks like a big mass of a big mass of white. And then the scent which is I know I've said it, but that scent is really exceptional, and to have a kind of a seating area anywhere near that to sit on it on a warm evening and to get that scent in the air, it's just phenomenal. So that is probably of the 10 that's my favorite. It's just a phenomenal plant.
Speaker 1:So, to just go through the list again, we had a cornus cousa, we had a fuchsia, tomtom again probably seen as old-fashioned forsythia, daphne, hydrangea paniculata, had hamamelis, mollusk and mahonia, charity, choisia, buddleia and and philadelphus. And if you have these in your garden along with your, your perennials, you'll have something you're able to extend your, your interest, across more than the summer border. I guess, other ones that are worth mentioning again. Some of them would be seen as potentially old-fashioned, but the likes of katina, smoke, bush, just some fabulous varieties of those. Again, they featured a bit at bloom, the, you know they look really well, timing wise, they're probably suited. But the, the lovely, beautiful leaves on the plant as well, the, you know that deep purple, you know they're just, it's a brilliant, brilliant one. Um, doesn't make it into the list necessarily, but one that's kind of worth looking at. Another one, again a little bit scraggy looking in terms of growth, but ktoniaster canubia will be seen as large shrub, smoke stroke, small tree, but again it has seasons of interest. So you have this dark, evergreen foliage flower early in the year and then a mass of berries. So in terms of berries it just gives you a huge, huge covering of berries. So again, a kind of an interesting one at certain times of the year.
Speaker 1:Erica carnia, definitely over you used, say, 20 years ago, and as a result people are kind of sick of them and and don't put them in. But at that time the erica carnia, which is the, the winter flowering header, they were planted in blocks. So you'd get a you know flower bed and you'd have all along the front of it be erica carnies, and then they don't do anything with them, they grow into one another and then they turn woody and that's the. That's the memory that people have of them for at the moment is that they remember this big woody um on thames plant that just looks horrible at the front of a bed. They do have a lifespan and this is, you know, part of the problem. They were probably planted too much, a little bit like what's happening maybe at the moment with hydrangea annabelle. But they, if they're used, not necessarily in blocks, as singles, and they're kept trimmed and they kept, you know, relatively small, kept fresh, they're fantastic for early season pollinators. They're a beautiful flower, really beautiful flower, and they really will pop in a in a bed when nothing else is or when not much else is flowering. So they're worth the place. But again, a little bit out of fashion at the moment fatsias is another great one, brilliant in a pot, interesting leaves, interesting flowers, good. One another kind of old-fashioned one is hypericum brilliant, really brilliant, bright yellow flower can be used as a hedge as well. So planted tied together as a hedge, not typically a hedging plant, but can make a really good hedge and that yellow flower is, you know, can be just a wall of yellow when, when, when you get it right. And spireas, again overlooked, a little bit deciduous most of them, and again a lot of different colored leaves, so nice yellow leaves, pinkish leaves and various colored flowers as well again will be seen, a little bit old-fashioned but quite good, and there's certain varieties there that are really good.
Speaker 1:Camellia probably should have got into the list, to be fair, because it's fantastic. You know the, the amount of camellias that have just fantastic flowers at. You know, a time at the, especially the earlier part of the year, they look really really good they're, you know they're. They're a solid, solid plant and and probably you know would, will be, will be appreciated in most gardens. They're brilliant in pots as well, so you know you can grow them quite comfortably in pots. Um, magnolias, I guess as well, could potentially be on the list. Then the likes of pyracanta, really good, struggling a bit with blight at the moment, so you know you have to watch for that, but there they can be brilliant as well. So there's loads potentially, but I suppose the overriding idea here was to not to overlook flowering shrubs. There's, there's so much choice out there, the, the list is endless. You could have hundreds, hundreds of really solid performers, but it's interesting that the, the best gardens always have some of these featured through the gardens. You know they're. They're adding this color when, when nothing else, when nothing else looks good, or they're adding a structure to the borders and they're just the support for the likes of the perennials. So perennials will do their thing at that perennial time, but these, particularly the ones that you know, give you the early season flower. They're really well worth their place. They're structurally. Then you have loads other ones that you could mention aurelias, and you know all those type that will add structure within beds. So, as I say, not not to overlook that kind of section of plants. As I mentioned earlier.
Speaker 1:Great to hear from some listeners last week and a couple of questions coming in, but again, keep sending those messages. Info at mastermygardencom. You'll find me on Instagram. You'll find me on TikTok. I don't do a huge amount on social media, but that's, you know. Messages there. Send me messages there. That's where you'll find me. I don't do a huge amount on social media, but that's your messages there. Send me messages there. That's where you'll find me. Also, I have been putting the podcast up on YouTube. It's just, you know, it's another place where people listen to the podcast. Now the plan is to sort of start doing more with YouTube in terms of videos, instructional videos, how to videos, and so on and so on. But at the moment I just put the podcast up there. So please go subscribe on YouTube and, yeah, as I say, keep getting in touch. It's great to hear from people, and next couple of episodes, or over the next few weeks, there's episodes which are featuring listeners' questions. So that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening and until the next time, happy gardening, thank you.