Kitchen Garden Forum

I cannot for the life of me remember the name of a shrub and have no other gardeners in the family to ask.

Used in many housing estate planting schemes it has a number of varieties, chiefly varying in overall size, flower size and deepness of flower colour.

Stems wrinkled like liquorice or Field Maple bark.
Between two and six feet high depending on cultivar.
Leaves best described as like flat thin holly leaves and "scabby" looking sometimes with purpleish blotches, tend to be on the end of the stems.
Flowers NOW, yellow, in drooping sprays like Laburnam, flowers are different shape though and they smell exquisite.

Yes I know I could visit a nursery, but...... I'd end up buying stuff I can't afford, I'm a gardener.

Mahonia, Peter!

Got it in one OH.
JB.

Thanks OH.

Mohonia Japonica..with lovely fragrant yellow flowers at this time of the year...

hi Tangoman,
Mahonia Japonica is incorrectly named because it originates in China and not Japan so really it should be Mahonia Chinense or Sinense.
Mahonias come frow Western China but also the western states of the United States of America, eg the Mahonia Aquifolium has another name the The Oregon Grape. M japonica is only one of many varietiies.
JB.

Dear Peter,
for my money it would be M. longifolia if you want a scented one. That said it is one of the larger kinds but it is still a very nice plant. You can smell the ones we have where I work from at least 20-30 yards away.
Regards sally Wright.

Mohonia Japonica is the widely available , freely flowering yellow scented shrub, the aquilfolium is the smaller variety with smaller leaves and flowers.., They are very hardy , easily propagate by air layering...