Plants With Purpose Part 2: Shrubs

Find out how shrubs can transform your borders and pots as Carol Klein reveals some of her favourite varieties and shows why these plants have star quality

- By Carol Klein. Photographs by Paul Debois, Getty, Image Broker, Christopher Tamcke, Jacky Parker Photography and Jason Ingram

When we first came to Glebe Cottage more than 40 years ago and started to make a garden, I was advised by knowledgeable friends that the first plants I should put in were shrubs. They, it seemed, would give the garden some structure, some backbone - it seemed they were indispensable. Not entirely true, any gardener can choose not to grow a particular category of plants, no trees, no bulbs, sometimes it seems the only group you can't exclude are the weeds! It wasn't that I ignored my advisers, more that there were more pressing considerations, terracing the garden, building deep beds and at last having an opportunity to grow my beloved perennials.

Over the years, almost surreptitiously more shrubs have been incorporated into the garden, though they have crept in here and there without my ever thinking, "Yes, I'm going to plant a shrub there." Now we have roses, camellias, deutzias, hydrangeas, and a host of others - even a rhododendron or two. Along with our trees they give a permanence, an established feel to the garden that no other group of plants can.

Shrubs, like trees, are woody plants. Though in the case of deciduous shrubs, they may lose their leaves, the framework of branches is permanent and, unlike herbaceous perennials, they do not die back and disappear. They're smaller than trees and while trees usually have a single trunk, shrubs are generally multistemmed. Beyond that description though, shrubs are so diverse it is impossible to generalise. That is their charm. There are so many to choose from, with many varied qualities. Some, roses are a good example, are grown almost exclusively for their flowers, bringing colour and perfume to the summer garden. Thanks to breeding breakthroughs, we can now have roses in bloom from early summer until deep into the autumn.