Specifically, they wanted to know what hardy shrubs would look stunning - or at least green and welcoming - on either side of the front door for shops, cafes and other businesses. Any shrubs like that will, of course, be fabulous by either side of your front door, too.

The group is realistic. Pots can be stolen, unless bolted down. The shrubs planted in them will need to look good all year round, and survive anything from Canberra's occasional blizzards to baking summers with minimal attention.

So to start with the most glamourous ... how about topiarised box? Box plants are small-leafed, slow growing and deeply tolerant. Yes, it takes time and skill to turn a shrubby twig into a metre-high pyramid or French poodle twirl, or even a topiary kangaroo, but if you are prepared to fork out the cash and give your plant a trim once a month or so - plus slow-release fertiliser pellets in spring and water at least once a week - topiary either side of your front door will add distinctive glamour to any establishment. You might even match the shape to the enterprise - a wine glass-shaped pot plant on either side of the door for a bistro, a pair of weights for a gym, and I'm sure that someone, somehow, could trim a couple of plants to look like green books for a library. Given the initial cost, however, it might be an idea to put the containers on wheels so they can be easily moved inside at closing time.

Classic "either side of the front door" trees include bay trees, partly because bay trees smell subtly wonderful and you always have a few leaves to toss in the stew, but also because bays can be topiarised and are very, very hardy. According to tradition, the bay tree on one side of the door will grant you peace, and the one at the other provide "plenty", but - again according to folklore - the two trees will never be exactly the same height, as there is never equal amounts of peace and plenty in the world.

There are hundreds of shrubs that might suit, from a reddish-leafed Nandina (sacred bamboo), a Buddleia or 'Butterfly Bush' which will give you flowers spring to autumn in full sun or light shade; one of the many gardenias, which bloom excellently in pots all through the warmer months in a sheltered spot i.e. by a wall on a concrete footpath, or a dwarf bottlebrush like Callistemon 'Great balls of Fire' - much more compact than most callistemons that need regular haircuts to look good.

Camellias are a "possible" but will need to be trimmed to an interesting shape - espaliered against the wall, perhaps - as otherwise they can look a bit dull when not blooming. One of the grevilleas like 'Coconut Ice' will give you flush after flush of flowers all year long in a warm spot, too, but will need to be pruned every few weeks or it may look straggly.

Olives make fabulous pot plants, and will even fruit in pots - look for one of the varieties bred to grow low and thick, like 'Garden Harvest', but remember that a potted olive will also need to be pruned to stay neat. Dwarf oleanders do brilliantly in courtyards, but possibly not for a café as the leaves are toxic - just in case a hungry customer wants a nibble.

I will mention variegated pittosporum only in whisper, as I hate the spotty things, but many adore them, and they can look ... okay ... in the right pot and spot. I will also whisper ' Banksia Golden Candles' and 'Banksia 'Birthday candles' as they are the most adorable potted plant I have ever seen when in full bloom. Sadly banksia are not always in full bloom.

You might even go for a "toofer" and have a shrub with a tallish bare stem like a standard Iceberg rose above say, a weeping rosemary planted below it. The rosemary will drape down the pot and bloom all winter, and the Iceberg rose give white (or possibly pink) blooms from spring through to late autumn. A froth of pink-flowered thyme for summer blooming would look gorgeous below a Leptospermum. Then there are the "elegant sculptural plants", the agaves or the grass trees (Xanthorrhoea spp), but they need exactly the right spot to look dramatic instead of boring.

I think I'd go for two potted calamondins - often mistakenly known as cumquats, but cumquats only fruit in winter, and calamondins have smaller, sourer golden fruit almost all year round as well as glossy green leaves. Grow one of the frilly or variegated-leafed mints underneath it - both mint and calamondins need copious feeding and watering to look good. (Most potted citrus are half starved). Try a dwarf lillypilly - the new pink-red growth is spectacular and they are hardy as cane toads but far more lovable. A sambuc jasmine bush will grow superbly in a pot in either full sun or semi shade, and give you delicate white fragrant flowers all summer to add to tea for "jasmine tea", or to use as garnish at the last minute - gravy, juices or salad dressing will turn them soggy.

I have just realised that we do, in fact, have two large potted plants either side of our own front door. They are kentia palms, and have survived 25 years or so with weeks of neglect in bushfire heat, or in frost down to minus nine. They just keep growing, even though their tops are now far larger than their pots. I mulch them now and then with the leftover grounds from the coffee pot, which feeds them too, and once a week they may get a coffee pot of water. If you are a lazy or ultra-busy plant lover with a drab and shaded front door, I can't recommend kentia palms too highly. They have welcomed me home for a quarter of a century.