This tough frost hardy tree is suited to coastal areas as well as the hotter inland areas. It has handsome evergreen foliage, dark green with red petioles, and rich pink, lily-of-the-valley flowers which are produced in autumn. Red strawberry-like fruit follow in winter. 5, more...

I remember my late father being very taken by this when he visited Australia and planted lots of it in my brother’s Monbulk garden. A frost hardy, drought tolerant evergreen shrub which from early summer until late autumn turns itself into cumulus clouds of soft grey, more...

Ceanothus proved themselves this last summer, flourishing in the toughest conditions. They’ve done well at Lambley with minimum watering even when planted on the hottest banks. Ceanothus ‘Blue Cushion’ has “...abundant pale blue flowers in button-like clusters from late, more...

A 19th century French hybrid between the deciduous C. americana from eastern U.S.A. and the evergreen C. caeruleus from Mexico. Later to flower than the Californian species it has a long season with us. 10 to 15 cm long panicles of powder blue flowers are produced from, more...

Much loved by gardeners in Victorian times who made a feature of this palm planting it in the centre of the lawn. They will fit well into a mixed planting as well of course. A palm from the hot dry areas of southern Europe and North Africa it is both drought tolerant and, more...

“Chimonanthus, that most heavenly scented of all heaven-scented flowers” Reginald Farrar.
Blooming in the depths of winter the flowers, cream coloured and tightly huddled against leafless stems, will fill the whole garden with a delicious spicy fragrance. As it, more...

A hybrid between Catalpa bignoniodes and Chilepsis linearis this rare, deciduous small tree is ideally suited to our dry inland gardens as well as coastal areas which aren’t humid during summer. For several months, from early summer until autumn, heads of large, more...

Cotinus are amongst the best of all drought tolerant, frost hardy, long lived trees and shrubs available for the garden. I grow about twenty plants of five varieties of Cotinus at Lambley and this year I will be planting more. Velvet Cloak is an upright growing selection, more...

Shrubs from China and Japan don’t generally do well here at Lambley. The hot dry winds of summer are too much for them. The deciduous Euonymus alatus is an exception. I planted one about ten years ago and it has never had a burnt leaf and always puts on a really good, more...

This is a much more compact plant than the type and although its catkins are not quite as long as other clones they are more freely produced. This drought tolerant, frost hardy, evergreen shrub flowers in the middle of winter. Happy in full sun or a little light shade., more...

One of the delights of spring when this deciduous shrub becomes a billowing mass of bright clear pink, lemon throated flowers. Long lived and soundly frost hardy it needs very little if any supplementary water once established. A thinning out of old wood occasionally is, more...

Crepe myrtles are among the few trees which flourished, even revelled, in the terrible heat of this past summer. Lagerstroemia ‘Biloxi’, a small tree some 6 metres by 5 metres, is covered in billowing masses of soft pink flowers from January to April. This cultivar gives a, more...

Crepe myrtles flowered through last summer’s terrible heatwave. Once established they are happy with little or no supplementary watering. L. ‘Tuscarora’ will make a single trunked tree to about 8 metres by 6 metres or a multi stemmed shrub half that height. During summer, more...