Arbustes

Shrubs for sale

Evergreen and flowering shrubs for borders, screening and pots, including pittosporum, elaeagnus, magnolias and witch hazel.

Shrubs do most of the heavy lifting in a garden. They give it shape all year and fill the space between the trees and the smaller plants, and many need nothing more than a trim once a year. Our range leans towards plants that sit well alongside topiary: tidy evergreens that clip neatly, plus a good choice of flowering shrubs.

Evergreens

Pittosporum tenuifolium is one of the most useful evergreens you can grow, with small, wavy leaves on dark stems. 'Golf Ball' and 'Tom Thumb' stay compact and rounded with little or no clipping, and 'Tom Thumb' has dark purple leaves. 'Silver Ball' has silvery grey-green foliage. Pittosporum tobira and its dwarf form 'Nanum' have glossy leaves and scented white flowers in early summer.

Elaeagnus ebbingei is tough and quick, copes with coastal wind and has small, scented flowers in autumn. Fatsia japonica and Aucuba are two of the best shrubs for shade, and Euonymus japonicus and holm oak (Quercus ilex) both handle wind and clip into neat shapes.

Flowering shrubs

Magnolias make up a big part of this collection. Magnolia stellata, the star magnolia, stays small and covers itself in white, star-shaped flowers in early spring, even as a young plant. The saucer magnolias (Magnolia x soulangeana) have large, goblet-shaped flowers in pink and white. 'Susan' and 'Betty' are two of the 'Little Girl' hybrids, which flower a little later and so often miss the frost. 'Genie' has deep red-purple flowers, and 'Daphne' is a yellow magnolia.

For winter flowers, there's witch hazel 'Arnold Promise', with spidery yellow flowers on bare stems, and the paper bush (Edgeworthia chrysantha), with clusters of scented yellow flowers in late winter. Mimosa (Acacia dealbata) flowers in late winter too, but it needs a warm, sheltered wall. In summer, Hydrangea 'Annabelle' has huge white flower heads, and Cotinus 'Royal Purple' has dark purple leaves that turn red in autumn.

Planting and care

You can plant pot-grown shrubs at any time of year, as long as the ground isn't frozen or waterlogged. Autumn and early spring are best, because the soil is moist and the roots can settle in before summer. Water new shrubs regularly through their first year and mulch around the base. Every plant comes with free plant food, and if you'd like help choosing, get in touch.