Plants for winter interest and fragrance

When it comes to winter, most of us want to just keep warm indoors. But you'd be missing out on a host of plants that come into their own during the dark days of winter. So, whether you just want some tips on what to look out for when you don your winter woollies and brave the cold, or are looking to be inspired with plants to add interest to your own garden at this time of year, we're happy to oblige with some of the season's best.

Is it just coincidence that many of our favourites have yellow flowers - the sunniest colour for the darkest days? If yellow's your colour, try Mahonia x media 'Charity', or the winter-flowering jasmine, Jasminum nudiflorum, or Cornus mas with its froth of tiny, eye-catching yellow flowers on bare branches. Look for a plant that combines both colour and fragrance and you'll have a winter winner!

Top of our list has to be the witch hazels. Hamamelis mollis combines a sweet fragrance and vibrant colour in equal measure. Position it against a dark evergreen hedge to make its spidery, sulphur-yellow flowers really pop, or near a pathway to appreciate its fragrance. Or choose one with a burnished copper coloured flower, such as Hamamelis x intermedia 'Aphrodite' or Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena'.

If evergreens are your thing, then the commonly named Christmas box or Sarcococca humilis is great for winter fragrance. The plant itself has quite an unassuming appearance but it punches well above its weight when it comes to fragrance - despite the small size of its flowers. It also carries lovely glossy black berries too. Best sited near a doorway so you can really appreciate its smell. Better still, take some cuttings and bring it indoors. Delicious!

For perennials, look no further than Helleborus niger, also known as the Christmas rose, which does its thing from early winter to early spring (though ours were flowering in August this year!). Reddish stems carry snow-white flowers, sometimes flushed pink. As it's evergreen, you still have the benefit of its architectural leaves after it has finished flowering.

Last but not least, wintersweet - Chimonanthus praecox. It really lives up to its name bearing sweetly-scented, pale yellow, waxy flowers which open in winter-time before its new leaves emerge. So, time to venture out and give your senses a winter treat!