Plants for my Winter Garden

Do you look for plants that will brighten your day? Which shrubs and bulbs please you most during the darkest months of the year? Have you decided which plants you would like to grow for 2002? Read here about how to attract more birds to the winter garden.

Plants that I buy for my garden tend to be scented, subtly coloured, or exceptionally attractive in shape. But I also choose white or bold colours (looking ahead to summer, Unwins produce a 'Bronze Leafed' dahlia collection - check for all Unwins products in the GoneGardening.com shop).

More often than not, my choice is restricted to plants that remind me of people with whom I associate happy times. Memories that I attach to plants become a source of inspiration as I walk round the garden.

Near the house, more flowers are unfolding on iris unguiqularis this winter than in previous years. Large, blue-lilac blooms appear through a mass of narrow leaves that contrast well with the black, grass-like leaves of Ophiopogon planiscapus. Further along the bed, white-margined leaves of Euphorbia 'Silver Swan' form neat domes - and there is the promise of flowers for April.

Snowdrops of numerous species and varieties grow up through the grass under a crab apple. And Cyclamen coum are already showing crimson in the shade of the evergreen leaves of a rhododendron.

Evergreen lavenders flourish along a straight path. Lavandula stoechas and L. stoechas ssp. pedunculata (Spanish lavender with long 'ears') are grown as hardy with English lavenders in several colours and varieties, including the dark blue 'Hidcote' and the silver-grey leaf 'Sawyers' - one of my favourites. Planted with them is the unruly purple-leaf sage. These plants all retain their foliage in winter. In summer their purple, pink or white flowers are strongly scented.

By the gate, scented Viburnum farreri resembles a small tree with white, spring-like blossom in winter. A few snowdrops and cyclamen have strayed into this bed - carried by birds and ants. Wild gladioli make a brief appearance later, providing splashes of cerise pink before the roses. The foliage dies down rapidly after flowering, leaving space for sedums - loved by butterflies.

On the other semi-shady side of the house - among other species of the genus - Viburnum bodnantense 'Dawn' is in flower, reaching up into the light, forming patterns of dark pink against a grey winter sky. At the top end of the garden, yellow winter-flowering jasmine grows to 6ft and ivies provide a background to red hips of wild roses (Rosa rugosa). At ground level the open-cup flowers of hellebores are a joy; beginning with the Christmas rose (Helleborus niger), and continuing right through to the Lenten H.orientalis.

Birds fly on and off a briar rose every day. Blue tits hang upside down on a bird feeder, where starlings also compete for space. At coffee time, a blackbird worked over the grass below the feeder. Moments later, a magpie nervously hopped down to pick up a choice morsel. A thrush followed a bird that is seen less often nowadays.

Thompson & Morgan have produced 'The Bird Care Collection' booklet. Amongst other products it contains a Berry Collection of shrubs (sold as small plants in pots) and a packet of easy-to-grow seeds for sowing called 'Flowers to attract birds'. I also spotted a squirrel feeder - according to T&M this will stop them stealing your bird food.

I have noticed that more birds are attracted to the garden as soon as food is put out for them. Bird food feeders and nest boxes are available on this website.

Alpine plants are a source of pleasure. Crocus species showing plump flower buds, scented narcissus, mauve-purple flowering, miniature Iris reticulata 'Pauline': all jostle for space with hardy cyclamen and assorted primulas. Unfortunately, instead of the delicate fragrance of flowering bulbs, the air is perfumed with garlic! - the new Tulbagia 'Silver Lace' has been temporarily housed with the bulbs.

Many of these plants grow perfectly well without heat. But I find that an almost unheated house costs little to run, and it allows me to grow a wider range of cyclamen species and other uncommon forms of plants. It is spirit raising to tiptoe along to the glasshouse on a frosty morning and be greeted by the sight of all the exquisite flowers that have opened over night.

You might find it helpful to know that anti-frost greenhouse heaters are available in the GoneGardening.com shop.