Over on the consistently excellent mostlymacro, Dean Stables has been out and about in Yorkshire, as he often is. He's posted a great picture of the rare local native the spurge laurel, Daphne laureola, which also makes a good early dwarf evergreen shrub for the shade garden featuring clusters of greenish yellow flowers with a lovely fragrance. '€˜Margaret Mathew'€™ is an especially bushy and prolific form.

He'€™s also posted some lovely pictures of the stinking hellebore, Helleborus foetidus, in flower although -€“ according to the New Atlas of the British Flora, my bible on such matters - it may not be truly native in his part of the world. But it's revealed as a lovely plant.

It’s impressive in gardens too and can make an dramatic specimen, as my picture of a plant with especially leaden-green foliage shows. Although it'€™s usually relatively short lived, it seeds around so once you have it you rarely lose it. Oh, and it doesn't really stink, Well, the leaves are have a slightly unpleasant smell, I suppose, but only when they'€™re bruised.