Although often regarded as a dull period in the garden, winter is actually a time when many plants have attractive foliage, fruits, flowers, bark, or stems. If you have the room, it's a nice idea to devote an area of the garden to plants of winter interest, where they can perhaps be seen from the house.

Shrubs and trees with ornamental bark provide structural features as well as texture and colour, such as the glossy, mahogany trunk of the Tibetan Cherry (Prunus serrula). Winter-flowering heathers or evergreen groundcover plants can also be grown at the front of a border for extra winter colour.

Smaller plants can also provide an attractive winter effect; ferns and grasses in particular are often added to provide structural grace to a bare garden. There is also a huge variety of perennials and shrubs which keep their leaves and structure during the winter. Many herbaceous and woody plants can also be relied on to make an impact, particularly when their stems and flowerheads are rimed with frost.