Five-star plant selection Part 2: shrubs

WE are all careful shoppers nowadays, always on the lookout for the ‘best buy’. It is as sensible to do this when choosing plants for the garden as when buying furniture for the home or a new car. Good plants are no more difficult to grow than poor ones, and they give a great deal more pleasure.

Nor is it always sufficient to know which are the best species to buy. Plants are very variable things and clever gardeners are always on the lookout for superior varieties or forms. So when you visit your garden centre or nursery, insist on getting the best. Here’s part two of my top 25 shrubs for your garden.

13. Forsythia

For many years the great Arnold Arboretum x ‘Lynwood Variety’, which was found in a cottage garden in Ireland, perhaps a chance seedling from seed dropped by a bird or the product of some unknown rustic hybridist.