Ilex
I have a warm regard for plants which grow easily, flower profusely, and yet can be bounds without resorting to extreme measures. Kerria japonica will send out long arching branches up to 6 ft. in height, or sometimes 8 ft. when given a sheltered place. Whether the soil is heavy acid clay, or shallow well-drained chalk they can be relied upon to spread a creditable – mantle of yellow over green polished branches.
One of the most erect forms I grow is Ilex aquirolium camelliaelblia. The smooth, dark green leaves are almost spineless, and when mature the berries are produced in abundance.
Flowers are produced from the leaf axils in February through to April and are a deep rich yellow and delicately fragrant. Pruning is restricted to cutting back each flowering shogt in April to within two buds of the base. Jasminum officina.
Madame Briot fortunately for the sanity of the gardening public has the good sense to be strictly female, berrying majestically with leaves which are margined and blotched with gold.
A bush twenty years old will reach 6 ft. or rather more in height, densely furnished at the base but with long arching branches festooned in June with soft pink, bell-shaped blossoms shaded yellow in the throat. Pink Cloud is, in my experience, a rather sprawling bush, but the flowers compensate for this by being a lovely shade of pink. Cuttings or layers will root if taken in September.
Smaller in every way K. angustifolia, Sheep Laurel, makes a suckering shrublet up to 30 in. in height in the form rubra and is worthy of inclusion in any rock garden. Deep red flowers sit neatly in the cup of dark green leaves. Propagation is by means of cuttings or in the latter instances, self-layered shoots.
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