Their only drawback is their aggressive suckering nature which can be curbed by the annual removal of unwanted suckers. If the garden includes a pond or stream then a pollarded willow will provide a splendid winter feature. Although, strictly speaking, trees, such willows can be treated as shrubs by the annual or biennial pruning of shoots either to ground level or to a short stem. Favourites for this treatment include 'Chermesina' (orange-red shoots) and 'Vitelline' (yolk-of-egg yellow shoots), both of which are forms of the white willow, Salix alba. They maybe planted singly or, if room allows, in bold groups. There are many shrubs with attractive peeling bark including Enkknlhm perulatus, Olearia macrodonta, Deutzia pulchra, Fuchsia excorticata (for mild areas) and Dipelta floribunda. Careful pruning will allow one to admire the stems of such shrubs without necessarily spoiling their overall effect. Compared with spring and summer, winter has fewer flowering shrubs but these are all the more welcome and appreciated as a result. The genus Viburnum seems to have the lion's share of such flowers there being at least four species and several cultivars in cultivation. Of these V. tinus is possibly the most commonly planted especially as a hedge in coastal gardens. There are several named cultivars of this evergreen of which 'Eve Price' is possibly the best. Compact in habit, up to 8ft(2.5m) with comparatively small, neat leaves, the white, scentless flowers (red in the bud) are produced in autumn, opening throughout winter. It is a superb evergreen for formal effect although its compact habit suits it for many situations. Differing in several ways from the last are the deciduous V. farreri and V. grandiflorum. The former is well known for its erect twiggy habit and fragrant, pink-budded, white flowers but the latter is less often seen due, in the main, to it being less hardy even though its flowers are pink and individually larger than those of the other. Both species, however, are now eclipsed in gardens by their hybrid, V. x bodnantense, which in its cultivars 'Dawn' and 'Deben' is hard to beat. Both have ample clusters of sweetly scented, pink and white flowers which, once noted, will never be forgotten. They appear intermittently over a very long season which, depending on prevailing conditions, can ran from late autumn until early spring. Both are large upstanding shrubs and require plenty of room in which to develop. Mention of scent brings another famous shrub to mind in the winter sweet-Chimonanthus praecox. It is, however, very much a patient gardener's shrub, young plants taking several years to reach flowering condition. When it does arrive, however, the fragrance of the purple-eyed, waxy-yellow, cup-shaped flowers has no equal (see also p. 81). Like the viburnums, winter sweet requires ample room for development and prefers a warm, sunny position to ripen its growths.