Today we are open from 09:00 until 17:30

Your independent Plant Centre
for all the Family

Best winter shrubs

During the winter’s short and often dreary days, delightful flowers and evergreen shrubs in gardens look stunning. At Rushfields Plant Centre, we offer a wide range of shrubs and trees that add colour to your dull winter garden. Any colour in the depths of winter is doubly valuable. But with scented flowers and jewel-like berries to enjoy too, you'll want to spend as much time outside during the colder months of the year as you do in summer.

We've picked six of the best shrubs to plant in your winter garden from the range in our garden centre.

Top 6 best winter shrubs

Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn': Clusters of sweetly-scented pink-tinged flowers open from early winter to early spring. Grows to about 10ft (3m). The sweet combination of colour and fragrance makes this shrub most valued. During frosty days and nights, you don’t have to worry, these flowers are unexpectedly tolerant of frost.

Daphne mezereum: Commonly known as February Daphne, because of its late winter flowers. While other flowers are still in dormancy, Daphne mezereum blooms from February to March. This small deciduous shrub grows up to 3-5ft (1-1.5m). Incredibly sweet-scented reddish-pink flowers are borne in small clusters along bare stems in late winter, followed by sumptuous shiny red berries. We offer February Daphne from late November. Visit our centre and plant winter shrubs in your garden.

Winter-flowering honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima): The powerfully fragrant creamy-yellow blooms of this loose-growing shrub fill the air with perfume through winter. This shrub is native to China and reaches about 6-10ft tall and wide (180-300cm). Loves a full sun to part shade spot in the garden. Plant this shrub in average, medium moisture, well-drained soils. Prune to shape after flowering.

Christmas box (Sarcococca confusa): The creamy flowers of the shiny evergreen Christmas box are tiny, but they pack a huge punch in the perfume department in midwinter. Grows to 3ft (1m) tall. During the winter season, from December to March, small white flowers appear on the undersides of the stalks and branches. This shrub is perfect for a shady border or as a patio planter.

Mahonia x media 'Charity': Sculptural evergreen leaves like giant holly are topped with sweetly-fragrant yellow flower spikes, at their best in late autumn to winter. The yellow flowers are followed by pretty purple berries, which are a delight to our native winter birds. Mahonia shrubs are easy to grow and the UK climate hardy. They will grow in most soils but prefer a sheltered spot in the garden. The Mahonia x media 'Charity' grows around 2m.

Skimmia x confuse ‘Kew Green’: Most Skimmias are often loved for their bright red berries, but this type is mostly known for its flowers. This plant is a male variant, and never produces berries. This plant grows bright, huge clusters of fragrant creamy-white flowers. The combination with the green foliage makes this shrub very impressive over many weeks. ‘Kew Green’ also pollinates female skimmias to ensure they produce berries. This shrub grows up to 3ft (90 cm).

Please ask the staff in our garden centre in Poynings, Sussex for more information and advice about choosing shrubs which look good in winter.

View more categories in the category Trees and shrubs