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and were inspired by their grandmother’s remarkable collection.I tell you all this because you should really be thinking about ordering bare-root roses for planting out in the winter. If you're wondering what to plant, and you favour old-fashioned varieties

with many fingered leaves, which turn yellow and red in autumn. The flowers are white with yellowy centres and these are followed by pink-stained, white berries that hold for most of the winter.Number two: Malus tschonoskii. Nearly perfect for all

topiary. In the winter they provide structure and add tone; in the summer they seem like benevolent aunts standing stiffly, but attentively, above a gambolling chaos of flower and lawn.You don't need a huge stately garden to use topiary. In my garden I

is so unexpected and so swift that you're only able to take six plants from your existing garden.So which six plants will you choose? Will you go for something big - a favourite cherry or a noble oak? Maybe an evergreen to liven up your winter? A rose

.It has, as I'm sure you've noticed, been a bit cold over Christmas — like a proper winter. The ground is too hard and the east wind too ticklish for relaxed gardening, but there is still great pleasure to be had from looking at and photographing gardens

shade.Sarcococca confusa (Christmas box)A winter flowering, highly scented shrub. Compact in size, Sarcococca is ideal for planting near a pathway or gate.Viburnum tinus (laurustinus)This is a workhorse of a shrub, which has pinkish-white flowers

chrysanthemums.It is pretty straightforward to grow your own ornamental cabbages although they suffer from the same predators as normal brassicas. Seeds should be sown in springtime.They should last in containers for much of the winter - although if the pigeons

that are being groomed - already -  for displays at next year's RHS Flower Shows.Herbs are one of the few things that can be used the whole way through the winter. A pot of rosemary, some mint (Egyptian mint is, apparently, the most evergreen) and a bay tree

'.Eryngium giganteum - this one I wrote about in the magazine but just wanted to show you what a fine and handsome corpse this plant makes. Still maintaining its shape long into the winter. It also looks great with grasses.

for various clients. If you have not yet ordered then get your skates on as they are best bought at this time of year for winter planting. As were all plants until relatively recently - nurserymen dug up and split plants and then sent them out wrapped in paper