The shrub of the matter

The shrub of the matter We are having a superb British spring and the winners have been the shrubs and trees. I cannot remember the weather being so kind to the fabulous buds on magnolias, even in London. Usually, a sharp night of frost punishes them for opening in mid-March and turns them brown after a few days. This year, cool, but not freezing, nights have held them at their best for longer than I can ever recall. It confirms my advice to all new planters and replanters: when you begin a new plan, make magnolias your first stop. The sooner they go in, the finer they will be in your lifetime. The temptation is to put in "quick-growing" plants first. Exactly the opposite is best practice.

If you think you are short of space, remember that they can go against a tall wall. I rate the pure white-flowered Magnolia x soulangeana Alba Superba as the loveliest wall shrub. It is hardy, easy and readily on sale in Britain. If you have a balcony, but no wall, put a magnolia in a big container as the main feature. An excellent one for the job is the white-flowered Magnolia x loebneri Merrill. It flowers profusely at an early age and is not too quick-growing for a balcony. Do not be seduced by bigger flowered ones like the fabulous purple-pink Star Wars which has enormous starry flowers. It is a remarkable sight just now, but it grows fast into a big tree. Keep it in the garden and give it enough space.

The other big winners have been camellias and cherry trees. The absence of a sharp frost has served all spring camellias well and they are superb plants for balconies and courtyards. My vote this year goes to the yellow-flowered Jury's Yellow, a williamsii hybrid that would make one half of a heavenly pair with any of the double-flowered whites. Garden centres stock it nowadays and if you see it, bag it for your collection. Like all camellias, it has to have lime-free soil. If its leaves go yellow, it means your watering or your soil is too alkaline. Dose it with the Miracle-Gro fertiliser brand prepared for lime-hating plants. Try to water with natural rainwater only.

I cannot grow camellias in my lime-ridden garden but for the past 10 days I have not missed them too much. About 10 years ago, I planted strategic cherry trees and, for once, got them right. My season begins with two acid-pink flowered winners, Prunus Okame and the excellent smaller Prunus Kursar, a variety found in central Turkey. Both are single-flowered and as tough as nails. They are the warm-up act for the big winners: white-flowered Prunus yedoensis, a big spreading tree, and above all, the fabulous double pink-flowered Prunus Accolade. Wherever I put Accolade, I fail to kill it, even in dry soil below an unmovably tall hedge of the dreaded Leyland cypress. Here is the ultimate praise for it. I once put a tiresome question to the great John Bond, keeper of the fine Savill Garden in Windsor Great Park - which must be seen in mid-May when the azaleas and big rhododendrons are in flower. I asked him to name his favourite spring shrub or tree and expected him to name a rhododendron so rare that I could not buy it. With the entire ericaceous flora before him, let alone his beloved family of hollies, he chose Prunus Accolade. This year, against blue spring skies, it has justified his choice. The flowers are the perfect shade of soft pink and, as they are not single, they last longer than many others. Take the hint and buy yourself an Accolade.

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Lastly, daphnes and viburnums. If your Daphne odora is healthy, it has an unsurpassed sweet scent, but many plants I see nowadays are not healthy at all, being susceptible to a virus that wrinkles their leaves and makes the flowers dwindle. The answer is to find a robust parent plant from the pre-virus era and take cuttings now. They are very easily rooted if you take pieces from the ends of healthy stems. They are far better value than an unsourced daphne in a black container, priced at £17 and waiting to go backwards for viral reasons. They are fine in a big pot and are excellent for urban balconies and backyards. Their scent is divine, unmatched by any other spring shrub, and in this idyllic weather it leaves even the lilies of the valley behind on the way to heaven

Viburnums come with only a few traps. One is the beastly ribbed-leaved Viburnum rhytidophyllum, such an unappealing shrub that the designers at Chelsea Flower Show seem unable to resist it as a last-minute filling for their designs. The other trap is a universal practice among suppliers: the grafting of the really good ones on to a coarse species which gives them more vigour and speeds up their growth. Every year, I go round the scented white Viburnum carlesii and big-flowered carlcephalum and notice how much of their forest of growth is coming from the coarse, orangey-tinted root stock. It needs prompt removal so that light and energy go into the true plant. Properly policed, they are unmissable shrubs, happy on either lime or acid soils and excellent against walls or in big pots. Carlesii is still king and the best of their season is to come. First, a wonder year for magnolias, then a viburnum May in a million. It looks likely and I cannot wait.

Slideshow Photographs: Christina Bollen/Gap Gardens; S&O/Gap Gardens; Howard Rice/Gap Gardens; S&O/Gap Gardens; Maxine Adcock/Gap Gardens; Jonathan Buckley/Gap Gardens

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