Baileyana, which holds an RHS award of garden merit (AGM), has a dreamy-palegreeny bark, feathered silvery-green leaves and is a far nicer thing altogether than the newish purple form, which I think is a very disappointing and mean-spirited variety lacking in any grace, despite the acclamation it received from many garden writers when it first appeared on the scene some few years ago.

The slightly exotic, longleaved A. retinodes, has also weathered the winter unscathed here.

It flowers too in winter and spring but also gives intermittent flushes of flower throughout the rest of the year, which is nice.

Less hardy and taller growing than either of those is the lovely ferny A. dealbata, which needs more shelter than A. baileyana to do as well.

(Be warned: if given the ideal conditions . . . warm, temperate . . . A. dealbata, the Silver Wattle, can go to 100feet or 30 metres! ).

Another very nice shrub for giving fragrant pale yellow pea flowers right through winter and spring is the leguminous Coronilla glauca 'Citrina, a sterling plant that does really well in warmer gardens. Having been flowering since October, it will surpass itself next month with a delirious main flush and then retreat into the background until autumn comes round again.

It has soft bluey leaves and is a lax enough grower, though amenable to being trained lightly against a wall.

You could try it in front of a bare-legged rose, or a woodyat-the-base Clematis armandii in a cosy spot, though I have it planted in a narrow space between some stone paving and a west-facing garden wall, outside the kitchen door to waft its fragrance on the bare winter air when the sun shines on it.

I have gently tied-in its lax main stems with soft string to the wall wires and it looks completely relaxed and natural.

After flowering is finished in late April or early May, it tends to get leggy and unattractive, so then I prune it quite hard, though not severely, to keep it in good shape.

The flowers on the ordinary, more commonly seen type of Coronilla are a rather brash yellow and not so significant in size, while its leaves are plain green. But it too carries that remarkable scent and though it might seem an unremarkable plant to the casual observer, it loves to be beside the seaside, which is a great advantage and not something to be sniffed at, as anyone who has ever tried to establish a seaside garden will quickly tell you.

Incidentally, on the subject of Irish seaside gardens, the months of April and May, when the winds are less powerful, are two of the best for planting shrubs and trees on the coast, particularly evergreens. Herbaceous, bulbs and deciduous stuff, particularly natives species, can take the winter wind better.

If you plant evergreens by the sea in autumn they will be forced to face the full force of the salt sea winds all through their long first winter, unless you can provide them with a full artificial shelter, such as properly erected windbreak netting, until a planted windbreak matures.

If left unprotected, especially before their roots have had time to find purchase in the light sandy soil, they will very likely be dried out or dessicated beyond repair.