What's looking good in your garden this month?

[TheSweetestHalleluja]

Our front garden is looking a bit bleak at the moment. It should look lovely come Spring, but decidedly gloomy now, and I feel like planting something out there to cheer up these cold, dark days.

I have some hellebores planted out there but they aren't flowering yet.

And come Spring, my bulbs should be flowering.

I'm after a pop of colour, maybe something with berries for the birds and for the colour, but not bedding type plants ideally would prefer a shrub type thing that gives a bit of impact.

Any ideas welcome :)

My garden is suffering because my house is a building project, but nevertheless the current stars are Mahonia, birch, camellia (only leaves but lovely glossy texture), and even kale and some oriental lettuces!

Definitely agree with recommendations for dogwoods and sarcococca. They're nothing much in the summer other than background, but once everything else does off, they can stand out amazingly precisely because of the bleakness around them. Gardens with big expanses often pair tall grasses with dogwoods - whatever the new name for stipa tenuissima is, that would look great with a cornus sanguinia.

Mumisnotmyonlyname Mexican fleabane is my all time favourite plant. You are encouraging me to plant even more of it this year!

I love the virburnum bodnantense but planted one years ago that died for no apparent reason. Do I risk it and try again? I would. I don't think they have any particular special needs. Maybe don't put it in the same spot as the last one.

@BrandoraPaithwaite The cyclamen in pots aren't usually truly hardy. They'll survive outside many winters in London where you have higher temperatures as being in a large city. But in a very cold winter, or in many other parts of the country, they are likely to be lost over winter. Cyclamen coum is hardy, and will last year after year, as will the autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium, eventually growing a corm the diameter of a tea plate or even larger.

White camellias in pots either side of the front door are looking lovely.

the current stars are ... kale and some oriental lettuces! Yes, I have some pots on the terrace with blue green Cavalo Nero kale and purple sprouting contrasting with the very yellow-green leaves of Asturian tree cabbage.

Some great ideas to think about here, thank you all.

My cyclamen have been stunning for months, still going strong.

I have daffodils with flower buds😂 they are on a windowsill, it will be interesting to see if they open, as it’s been minus 4 for a week at night.

You can definitely get earlier blooming daffodils, a relative has some in her garden that almost always flower through December and January, they look lovely and cheerful even through the snow when we've had it.

I haven't bought any this year, but in previous years the potted cyclamens (red, white, bright pink) have survived next to my door in Lancashire. A few have lasted for more than one year. But the cyclamen coum in the borders and rockeries are brilliant little things.

My euonymus 'green and gold' is a lovely splash of reliable brightness - it decided it didn't want to just be a neat bush breaking up a border but spread itself up and across quite a large section of fence.

Hellebores are the stars in my garden at the moment. Also Loropetalum chinense, snowdrops, the first few daffs and my Lady of Shallott rose, which just won’t stop flowering!

Yes euonymus are lovely too. Think I'll definitely add at least one variegated shrub out the front for the brightness.

Wow those photos are lovely @VenusClapTrap, I'm so impatient for my hellebores to flower, and that rose is a stunning colour.