Making a bright bed in winter

Many of us turn our backs on the garden when it comes to the cold season, says Michael Leapman, but there are plants that will brighten up the gloomiest winter days

At this time of year it is comforting to reflect that most parts of Britain enjoy mild winters. There are seldom more than a few days when it is impossible - or positively unpleasant - to venture into the garden. Yet there are many gardeners who effectively hibernate once it gets too cold for Pimms on the patio. Having furnished the outdoor room with shrubs and perennials that put on their best show to impress summer guests, they lock the back door and French windows and put the key safely away till spring.

Adrian Bloom, the gardening writer and chairman of his family nursery in Norfolk, has long been an advocate of winter gardening. This does not mean that he thinks we should all be out there with our bobble-hats and woolly mitts, digging away in December (except for vegetable gardeners who are advised to be doing precisely that), but that we should plan our gardens so that they can give us pleasure all year.

"Don't ignore any season," he urges. "I look forward to winter because you have time to enjoy the garden, without all the concentrated activity of the summer. If you've got a small garden you can argue that you want more colour in winter because you stay at home more, rather than going out and about. If you plan the garden well there's a lot that you can see from the house."

Adrian does not have a small garden himself. In 30 years, he has transformed the six acres around his bungalow, beside the nursery at Foggy Bottom, into a showpiece much appreciated by visitors when he opens it to the public. It is best known for its conifers, one of the areas in which he specialises.

Conifers have their place in any winter garden, yet only those with gardens as big as Adrian's can accommodate the full-sized trees. Smaller varieties, rigorously cut back, can form the backbone of a good winter display: several, such as Pinus sylvestris "Aurea", have needles that change colour in autumn from green to mellow bronze or yellow, brightening up the shortest days.

Foliage is just one of the elements that make for winter colour. Not many showy flowers choose to expose themselves to cold wind and frost, but some do. Several shrubs have brightly coloured stems that can be an eye-catching feature once the leaves have fallen; others, such as holly and pyracantha, produce dazzling berries that attract birds. Heathers form a year-round carpet, while ornamental grasses, carefully sited, can break up areas of bare brown soil.

Plant association, or the positioning of plants to bring out the best in themselves or their neighbours, is an essential element in all garden planning, but especially in winter displays. The comparative emptiness of the beds, once the annuals and herbaceous perennials are gone and the deciduous leaves have fallen, makes any lapse of judgement instantly apparent. Adrian sets great store by getting this right, and his garden is full of well-chosen combinations.

What he calls his "winter bed" is about 70 yards from the bungalow, but the bright red stems of the dogwood, Cornus alba sanguinea, can be seen from the living room window. Known as "Winter Flame", this is among the most spectacular of the dogwoods: its warm golden leaves fall at the end of autumn, revealing stems that are blazing orange at the base, and red or pink at the tip. First-year stems are the most colourful, so the trick is to cut them right back to the ground in late spring, after they come into leaf.

For variety, the winter bed contains another good dogwood, Cornus alba kesselringii, with dark purple stems and autumn leaves to match. Beneath this, Adrian has planted a yellow winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis), which looks marvellous against the purple. Its flowers, like large buttercups, appear at the coldest time of the year - the same time as the snowdrops that Adrian has sited near the "Winter Flame" dogwood for another contrast of colour.

Of larger shrubs with good stem colour, one of the best is the Japanese maple, or Acer palmatum. Adrian likes the variety that used to be called "Senkaki" but has been confusingly renamed "Sango-Kaku". The deep coral- red stems are unaffected by the change of terminology.

He grows two varieties of rubus, or bramble. Both "Golden Vale" and "Silver Fern" have bright white stems that are especially beguiling after a frost. Close to these are clumps of Cyclamen hederifolium, its pink or white flowers appearing in autumn and lasting into January. Cyclamen coum, which comes into flower later, will keep going until March. Both have attractive mottled foliage that enhances the bed when the flowers have gone. They tolerate both shade and fairly dry conditions.

Apart from the ubiquitous pansy, which Adrian finds too showy, one of the most popular winter flowers is the hellebore, known as the "Christmas Rose" or "Lenten Rose" (few actually flower as early as Christmas). It comes in a variety of unassertive colours, from creamy green through white, to pink and mauve. Favourite shrubs are the pink and white camellias, some flowering as early as January; mahonia and forsythia - both yellow - and hamamelis, or witch hazel. He places yellow witch hazels against dark backgrounds and red ones in front of lighter foliage.

Hamamelis, like winter jasmine, is grown as much for its scent as for its appearance. Both give off a heavy, sweet perfume that is an unseasonal reminder of languorous summer days. Adrian's favourite for winter scent is sarcococca, or sweet box. "You can smell it from 30 feet away," he says.

In the winter bed, height is provided by a few birch trees with pretty peeling barks. The best garden variety is the white-barked Betula jacquemontii, with the bonus of good catkins in spring.

If not all gardens are big enough to accommodate a birch tree, everyone can find room for ornamental grasses. Adrian grows many varieties but particularly favours Acorus ogon, whose elegant rush-like foliage stays a warm, golden colour all winter, and Ophiopogon negrens, with black arching leaves that spread to fill any planting gaps.

Grasses come in varied heights, from those that hug the ground to the taller ones waving gracefully in the breeze. Some are evergreen but others, in winter, sport pleasing shades of brown or oatmeal. They include varieties of miscanthus, or silver grass: "Cascade" forms silvery heads shaped like peacock tails in autumn, and they last over the winter. "Morning Light" is similar, but with a variegated leaf. A smaller variety, forming flower heads later than most, is Miscanthus yakushimensis.

Adrian uses festuca, or fescue, to plant between shrubs to ease the eye's transition from one to another. The low-growing Festuca glauca has thick tufts of blueish leaves that keep their colour into winter. Three more grasses that stay close to the ground are Bouteloua gracilis (mosquito grass), with spiky flowers that appear at right angles to the stem, like railway signals; Pennisetum orientale, its pink plumes fading to grey; and Luzula marginata, green in summer and yellow in winter.

There are several sorts of stipa, or feather grass, ranging in height from 18 inches to six feet and all, as their common name suggests, with fluffy heads. The leaves of Stipa arundinacea, one of the smallest, take on a red and bronze tinge from autumn onwards. The slightly taller Chionocloa rubra turns a deeper shade of bronze.

Aside from grasses, the plant that Adrian uses most often for winter foliage colour is the bergenia. For understandable reasons, the variety he likes best is the one introduced by his family nursery, "Bressingham Ruby". Its plump leaves turn a marvellous deep red that lasts right through winter and stands up well to frost.

Being comparatively small, the bergenia is a good plant for winter tubs and window boxes. Another is Euonymus fortunei, the low-growing version of the evergreen shrub: good varieties are "Emerald Gaiety" and "Emerald 'n' Gold", both with variegated leaves in green, gold, white and pink. Small grasses and heathers are also good for growing in containers.

To prove that you do not need a large garden like his to accommodate winter-interest plants, Adrian took me to see two front gardens he designed in the nearby village of Roydon. Both 20 feet square, they are in front of adjacent modern semi-detached houses. One of the gardens has a narrow strip of grass curving between two beds; the other is planted entirely through a layer of shingle covering the earth.

The first is devoted principally to small conifers and heathers, interspersed with grasses. As a backdrop, dogwoods and other medium-sized shrubs cover part of the house wall. The shingle garden next door concentrates on alpines, grasses and perennials, with fewer conifers. This gives it a more flowing, less rigid shape, enhanced when the wind catches the taller grasses.

The two gardens show clear evidence of the plantsman's eye. They were created five and three years ago respectively and have now reached a settled maturity. Both look as good in winter as they do in summer, their subtle gradations of form and colour delighting not only their owners but the villagers who pass in front of them, in need of any spiritual comfort they can find as the east winds roar across Norfolk, straight from the frozen Steppes.

! Adrian Bloom's "Winter Garden Glory" was published in 1993 by Harper Collins at pounds l5.99. He has also produced an hour-long video to accompany it. Both are available by sending a cheque payable to Adrian Bloom to: Foggy Bottom, Bressingham, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 2AA. Prices (including p&p): book pounds 18.75; video pounds 16.75; both together pounds 29.99.