Brown, dried, dead. The effects of winter on many garden shrubs in Irish gardens. The past two winters have been hard on many of the stalwarts such as Hebe, Cistus and even herbs such as Rosemary and bay leaf.
If colder winters are going to continue we have to look for alternative shrubs. Recently I saw this attractively trained fir tree, Abies koreana, an nice hardy plant to use instead if a standard bay tree, Laurus nobilis. It looked great under planted with The ornamental grass. Stipa tenuissima.
Ciaran The Gardener 