10 plants to lift the November gloom in your garden

Long gone are the days when everyone ‘put the garden to bed’ in November, and rightly so, for winter can be glorious. It’s the season when rich evergreens take a giant step forward, whether it’s structural box or yew, or a choice evergreen cleverly placed. Topiary looks especially crisp, and it’s also possible to cast some sunshine in shady places by adding golden glimmers of foliage – always in moderation though.

There’s fragrance too, for winter flowers lure their pollinators in with their heady perfume, rather than big blowsy petals. You’ll enjoy their scent just as much as the pollinators will, but do find a sheltered spot so that the fragrance can linger. On the ground, the earth has taken on a dark ebony patina, which highlights frosted and silver foliage to perfection. You’ll also notice fine detail now, whether it’s a grassy plume, a gnarled and fissured tree trunk, or the rippled surface on a stone terrace. Once the shortest days are over, there will be early flowers, too, and they can all be planted now – as long as the ground is frost-free.

Ten winter sensations to plant now

1. Ilex aquifolium ‘Alaska’

Admittedly, this is a prickly plain-green English holly, but the high-gloss foliage is smaller and neater than most, so it’s suited to being cloud-cut into a curvaceous hedge, or a single cake-tiered specimen perhaps. Topiarised holly won’t produce red berries, but left to its own devices this slow-growing, free-fruiting holly makes a columnar tree rising to 15ft, or 5m, after 20 years or so. Then it will provide you with a festive mix of bright red and holly green for many a year. Don’t place ‘Alaska’ in your flower border: the species name Aquifolium refers to eagle’s talons. Widely available.

2. Salix gracilistyla ‘Mount Aso’

Who can resist a pink pussy willow on a cold, frosty January day when the steam is rising as the air warms up. This pink form, selected by Japanese plant breeder Dr Tsuneshige Rokujo, was named after Japan’s largest active volcano, Mount Aso on the island of Kyushu. The black catkins of ‘Melanostachys’ could be another option, although they’re not nearly as cheerful. Both can be forced into flower for Christmas and flower arrangers adore them. 5ft to 10ft / 3m. Widely available.

3. Daphne bholua

The best winter-flowering daphne of all, but difficult to propagate and slow-growing, so it will be pricey. ‘Jacqueline Postill’ is very floriferous and highly scented and should keep its foliage in most winters. Alan Postill, who worked for Hilliers for more than 60 years, spotted this unusual evergreen seedling at the nursery in 1982. He named it after his wife, although it wasn’t launched until 2000. ‘Mary Rose’, my all-time favourite, has tight clusters of purple-pink flowers. ‘Spring Beauty’ is another option. 8ft / 2.5m. Try Junker’s Nursery.

4. Hamamelis x intermedia

These hybrid witch hazels produce weather-resistant marmalade strands in January and their spidery structure allows cold air to escape, so frost never browns them. It’s important to buy witch hazels in flower so that you can ascertain the fragrance, which varies from freesia, to medicinal, through to unpleasant. Generally, the redder ones have a poor scent. The two stand-out yellows are ‘Pallida’, an acid yellow with a divine scent, and ‘Barmstedt Gold’, a golden yellow with contrasting purple-red calices. They all need deep soil and reasonable drainage and they hate to dry out in summer, so water them properly when it’s dry. Up to 12ft / 4m. Try Ashwood Nurseries.

5. Clematis cirrhosa var. balearica

Featuring silky green-white bells, tastefully dappled in maroon, this Majorcan clematis is supported by a dense, fern-like foliage. Bumblebees adore the pendent winter flowers, which are perfect for framing a door or window, but this variety must have a south-facing position. Tidy after flowering, if needed, but don’t prune it. ‘Freckles’ flowers by November but the larger, whitish flowers, which are heavily freckled in bright red, are sparser in number. I grow both. Up to 12ft / 4m. Widely available.

6. Cornus officinalis

This more refined form of Japanese cornel dogwood features tiny roundels of bright-yellow flowers between late winter and March. It does well in slightly alkaline soil, and forms an airily branched shrub that can rise to 15ft, or 5m. It casts a benign presence over my ferns, trilliums and snowdrops and it scatters tiny yellow florets on the ground like spring confetti. I first admired it in John Massey’s Garden at Ashwood Nurseries, which opens for local charities every Saturday throughout the year. Available from good tree nurseries.

7. Cyclamen hederifolium

This autumn-flowering cyclamen enjoys a winter foliage that can vary from marbled green to silver. It’s good under and around trees and shrubs, but the tubers reach a foot or more across, so it needs to be undisturbed, otherwise you’ll bring one up on your fork. Use the black strappy leaves of ophiopogon planiscapus “Nigrescens” with snowdrops and you’ll get a winning winter combination. It’s worth keeping this variety away from the walnut-sized small tubers of the spring-flowering Cyclamen coum, though – the two don’t sit happily together. 4in / 10cm. Try Ashwood Nurseries.

8. Heuchera ‘Glitter’

Veined foliage is fabulous in winter and this pewter-leafed heuchera is veined in black, with red stems. This compact heuchera was raised in 2013 by Terra Nova Nurseries, an American nursery in Oregon that specialises in breeding pulmonarias, heucheras and tiarellas. It pioneered micropropagation, so its plants are grown right across the world. Any silver heuchera looks good in winter light, but ‘Glitter’ produces pink flowers in summer if it’s grown in shade. Watch out for vine weevils. 12in / 30cm. Widely available.

9. Helleborus foetidus

The stinking hellebore may not be as glamorous as those colourful hybrid hellebores, but it flowers weeks earlier. The divided dark-green foliage supports one stem containing a head of nodding green bells, each one finely margined in winter-red. Better still, it flowers in deep shade and is resistant to rabbits and deer. 18in / 45cm. Widely available.

10. Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Golden King’

This ‘kinder to the fingers’ Highclere holly provides a bolt of winter sunshine with its sumptuous olive-green foliage irregularly edged in mayonnaise-yellow. It’s a female berrying holly, despite its male moniker, but it’s often shaped into a roundel and grown for foliage alone. Faster-growing than English holly, it’s often used in hedging and the first bird-sown hybrids were noticed at Highclere Castle in Hampshire – the setting of Downton Abbey. It involved the bees carrying pollen from a tender holly, llex perado, and our native Ilex aquifolium. ‘Belgica Aurea’ makes a brighter splash. Trim to size. Widely available.