ow-maintenance; handsomely evergreen; fragrant flowers: all these are attributes of the various kinds of mahonia, and all are exactly the sort of qualities you’d want from a winter-interest plant. Yet you are more likely to find this stalwart being described as ‘boring’, ‘spiny’ or, most damning of all, ‘a car park shrub’. “They do get a bad press,” agrees Fran Clifton, head gardener at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Hampshire. “But that’s because the more common ones are the big blobby evergreens with large spiny leaves. They can actually be extremely delicate in their foliage and they flower in different tones, from pale whites and creams all the way through to bright orange
