Jade plant

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.

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.

A rounded, slow-growing succulent shrub from the Western Cape of South Africa, the silver-leaved cousin of the common jade plant. Its thick, branching stems carry almost circular, fleshy leaves of a striking silvery-grey, edged in red where the sun hits them, and mature plants top out with domed clusters of pink-white star flowers. Like other Crassula it is an easy, drought-tolerant succulent that stores water in those plump leaves and uses CAM photosynthesis to cope with heat and dry air. POWO (Kew) places it as native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa, and it is frost-tender (about RHS H3), so outdoors it belongs only in warm, frost-free gardens (roughly USDA zones 9b-11) - everywhere colder it is a classic pot or house plant. It wants full sun to keep the silver colour and red margins, very sharp drainage, and only sparing water: overwatering and cold, wet soil are what rot and kill it, far more than any drought. The leaves are mildly toxic if eaten, to people and to pets, so it is grown for looks, not the table.

Snowrose is a small evergreen-to-semi-evergreen shrub native to open subtropical woodlands and wet meadows from India through southern China to Japan (Wikipedia), prized for its near-continuous flush of tiny white funnel-shaped flowers, opening from pink buds, from early spring to near autumn. It thrives in containers and is one of the world's most commonly sold bonsai subjects, tolerating hard pruning and offering dense, fine-textured foliage. The honest catch is twofold: it is frost-tender (USDA zones 9-11 outdoors; zones 7-8 only as a protected container plant), and it is notoriously fussy - overwatering, underwatering, cold drafts, or simply being moved can trigger sudden, dramatic leaf drop. (Note: GBIF now files this taxon under the accepted name Buchozia japonica, with Serissa japonica a synonym.)

Cape honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis, Bignoniaceae) is a vigorous, evergreen scrambling shrub from southern and south-central Africa, valued for tubular orange-to-apricot flowers borne erratically across much of the year. It reaches about 6.6 to 9.8 feet tall and wide as a free-standing shrub, or can be trained much taller on a trellis or wall, and is widely used for informal hedging and as a hot-color border or container plant. It is frost-tender (RHS H1C; roughly USDA 9b-11) - in cooler climates it is grown under glass or as a summer container plant and overwintered indoors. In frost-free, mild climates it can become weedy: it has naturalised and is treated as invasive in parts of Australia and on islands such as the Azores, so site it where suckering and self-layering can be managed. It is not a recognised edible and is not flagged as notably toxic, though several plant parts feature in traditional southern-African medicine; treat it as ornamental rather than for consumption. Note the accepted binomial here is Tecomaria capensis (POWO/GBIF); the widely-seen Tecoma capensis is a synonym.