Conifers seem to have such a bad name, from the monster leylandii, so grand in size it’s often the cause of disputes among neighbours, to the boring, ancient dwarf conifers, sitting round and smug in a sea of heathers. Yet they can be extraordinarily beautiful, especially the deciduous kinds that shed their leaves every autumn in a blaze of yellow.
You may have seen larch forests shining out in Scotland and putting plain Christmas trees to shame, but larch are far too big and coarse for domestic gardens. Fortunately, other kinds are not, and these can be shrubs as well as trees. Here are my favourites.
Yellowing autumn leaves of a Ginkgo biloba
ALAMY
Ginkgo biloba
Famous for its leaf shape, that simple fan — sometimes complete, sometimes bilobed at the end —
