Pig's ear

A tough, bushy evergreen fynbos shrub grown for its long-lasting coloured bracts: the slender leaves at the stem tips flush yellow, orange, and crimson around small woody cones, brightest through the cool season. POWO (Kew) gives its native range as the Cape Provinces of South Africa, where it is the most widespread and adaptable conebush, and it is the parent of the famous cut-flower hybrid "Safari Sunset". The honest catch carries through everything that follows: it is dioecious - male and female cones are borne on separate plants - and, like all Proteaceae, it is phosphorus-sensitive, so ordinary phosphate fertiliser and bone meal will kill it. It wants acidic, sharply drained soil and full sun, is drought-tolerant once established, and is frost-tender, though the hardiest and most forgiving of this fynbos group. Its small, scented heads are insect-pollinated (beetles, flies, and bees) in the wild - unlike the proteas, the conebushes are not bird-pollinated; it is grown ornamentally, not as a food crop.

David viburnum is a compact, mound-forming evergreen shrub native to western China (its provenance usually given as the Sichuan / Yunnan region), grown for its bold, deeply three-veined glossy leaves, small clusters of white flowers in late spring, and - when fruiting - striking oval drupes in a distinctive metallic turquoise-blue. It holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit and suits the front of borders, shaded corners, and containers in cool-temperate to mild climates. The honest catch is a fundamental one: it is dioecious, so you must plant at least one male and one female together to get the celebrated blue fruit - a single plant in isolation will never berry, and many gardeners discover this only after years of waiting.

Japanese box is a compact, dense evergreen shrub long cultivated in Japan (where it was first described from cultivated plants of uncertain wild origin) with truly wild populations known from Taiwan, used for centuries for topiary, low hedging, and bonsai. Its fine-textured small leaves and naturally tidy habit make it one of the most widely planted formal garden shrubs in temperate regions, and the 'Faulkner' cultivar holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit. The honest catch is a double threat: all parts contain steroidal alkaloids (cyclobuxine) and are toxic to humans and livestock, and the species is under sustained pressure from box blight (Calonectria pseudonaviculata) and the box tree moth (Cydalima perspectalis), with B. microphylla documented as more susceptible than the common European B. sempervirens, so an established hedge can be defoliated within weeks.

Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa) is an evergreen Mediterranean shrub grown for its bold foliage and its distinctive tiered flowers. Through spring and into early summer the stems carry whorl upon whorl of hooded, butter-yellow blooms stacked in neat tiers up the stem, set against sage-like, wrinkled, grey-green leaves that are softly felted with hairs. Despite the name it is not a true sage and is not culinary - it is grown purely as an ornamental. It is a tough, sun-loving, drought-tolerant shrub for hot, dry, sharply-drained places: gravel gardens, Mediterranean-style borders, and hot sunny banks. The honest caveat is that it resents wet, heavy soil and cold winters; it is only borderline hardy (RHS H4), so in cold-winter areas it needs a warm, sheltered spot and very sharp drainage to come through. Trim it lightly after flowering to keep it bushy and compact, leave the dried seedheads for winter structure, and enjoy it as the good bee plant it is.

Mediterranean spurge (Euphorbia characias) is an architectural evergreen sub-shrub of the Mediterranean Basin, forming an upright dome of blue-green, closely set, strappy leaves to about 4 feet. From late winter through spring it is topped by big, dense, dome-shaped heads of chartreuse-green flower structures (cyathia) that hold their acid-lime colour for months and give the plant a sculptural, almost otherworldly presence. It is tough, drought- and salt-tolerant, and evergreen year round, but it comes with a real safety flag: like all spurges it bleeds a milky white latex when cut or broken, and that sap is a skin and eye irritant. Handle it with gloves and eye protection, and keep the cut sap away from skin and face.

Coronilla valentina is a compact, evergreen Mediterranean shrub in the legume family (Fabaceae), with a native range spanning the Mediterranean Basin from Portugal and Spain through Italy, the NW Balkans and Greece to the Aegean and Turkey, and south across northwest Africa to Libya. In a warm, sheltered garden spot it rewards with prolific, intensely honey-scented yellow flowers from late winter into summer and handsome glaucous foliage year-round. The honest catch is cold-hardiness: RHS rates it H4 (hardy to about 14°F), so it is borderline at the cold edge of USDA zone 7 and is liable to be cut to the ground or killed outright in a hard freeze, demanding a sheltered south- or west-facing wall in colder gardens - and the whole plant is toxic to humans and livestock.