This planting combination uses evergreens and semi-evergreens with different heights, from tall at the back to shorter to the front. Spring flowers on Viburnum, Weigela, Skimmia and Rodgersia add colour and fragrance. 

Dryopteris and Tiarella provide extra groundcover, helping to stabilise the soil and reduce soil erosion, suppress weeds and help retain surface moisture. Using an organic mulch, preferably homemade compost, while the plants establish can help to provide the same benefits.

1 - Viburnum x burkwoodii ‘Mohawk’ 

2 - Weigela ‘Eva Rathke’ 

3 - Viburnum tinus ‘Gwenllian’ 

4 - Rodgersia pinnata ‘Superba’ 

5 - Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliance’

6 - Skimmia japonica ‘Fragrans’ 

7 - Tiarella ‘Spring Symphony’ 

2 - Weigela ‘Eva Rathke’ is a deciduous shrub with green leaves on arching branches. Arrays of bright red or dark pink tubular flowers are borne in late spring and summer.

3 - Viburnum tinus ‘Gwenllian’ is a bushy evergreen shrub with dark green leaves and compact clusters of starry white flowers, opening in late winter from reddish buds and followed by oval metallic-blue berries.

4 - Rodgersia pinnata ‘Superba’ is a clump-forming herbaceous perennial with large, divided, bronze-tinged leaves and tall spikes of small, bright pink flowers.

5 - Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliance’ is an evergreen fern, with bronze-coloured new fronds in spring and particularly bright orange-red ripe spores on the underside of the leaves in autumn.

6 - Skimmia japonica ‘Fragrans’ is a small evergreen shrub forming a low dome, with aromatic dark green leaves and dense clusters of small, white, fragrant male flowers.

7 - Tiarella ‘Spring Symphony’ is a clump-forming perennial with deeply-lobed green leaves marked with dark purple along the midribs. Upright stems carry spires of small, starry, creamy-white flowers, opening from pale pink buds in late spring and early summer.