Scrubby Scorpion-vetch (glaucous form): Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca

At the moment, our front garden is mainly yellow. It’s a very cheerful colour, signifying spring, even today when it is cold with a brisk north-westerly wind and the occasional flurry of sleet.

So far we have the yellow of Euphorbia characias and some yellow Tulips. Our cultivated Broom (Cytisus sp.) will be next, to be followed by Spanish Gorse (Genista hispanica). The other splash of yellow is paler and started to flower around Christmas time, with long pauses in colder weather. It comes from Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca, the glaucous form of Scrubby Scorpion-vetch.

Coronilla valentina (also known as Bastard Senna) is a member of the Fabaceae (the Pea family, which I used to know as the Leguminosae). It is a rather straggly shrub from the Mediterranean area: Portugal, Spain, Morocco, France, Algeria, Italy, Malta, Tunisia, Libya, Croatia (Dalmatia), Albania, Greece and Turkey. It has been grown in the British Isles as a garden plant since 1569 and has been introduced into parts of the United States and Kenya. It is hardy down to -5 to -10 degrees Celsius, so can grow quite happily in milder parts of the UK in a sunny, sheltered spot in well-drained soil. My plant is in a sunny, south facing spot.

The usual garden form is subspecies glauca, which has bluish-green foliage, as the name suggests. I first saw it growing by the south coast of the Isle of Wight in May 2016; it had probably been in flower for months but still looked good. I returned in May 2019 when it had been given a very drastic prune and wasn’t looking its best. Plants do get woody and leggy after several years and can be replaced with young plants raised from seed or semi-hardwood cuttings.

In a sheltered place, Coronilla valentina is an ideal plant to light up the end of winter. The Frustrated Gardener describes it as “glowing like a candle in the dark“. In his garden in Kent it “laughs in the face of February“. Here in Norfolk, this year’s cold snap in February slowed its flowering but caused it no obvious harm and my four year old plant is flowering more than ever. According to the RHS, it can grow to 1 metre by 1 metre (3 feet by 3 feet). My specimen is about this size but the Isle of Wight specimen was easily twice as tall in its coastal garden. Coronilla valentina doesn’t usually need much, if any pruning (RHS pruning group 1).

The pale lemon-yellow flowers are arranged in crown-like clusters (hence “Coronilla“, meaning crown). They are quite fragrant during the day. The scent reminds me slightly of Broom, but less powerful, but it has also been described as “a sweet peach fragrance“, “Deliciously fragrant, make sure you plant it where you can enjoy its lemon scent as it intensifies in the sun” and “reminiscent of daffodils“.

Hardy’s Plants call it “a veritable bee magnet“. In our garden the flowers attract the occasional bumblebee (Common Carder Bees, Bombus pascuorum) , but once the Euphorbia characias is in flower it is the main attraction for other insects such as flies and solitary bees. Nonetheless, it is still a good plant to grow if you have the right conditions.