What looks lovely in your garden now?

[Brontosaurus]

My garden is looking very sparse right now. It's the same every winter because I haven't really got many evergreens or plants/shrubs with winter interest. Partly because they're expensive to buy.

I'm hoping to change that for next year to perk things up a bit.

What's looking nice for you at the moment?

To add: I'm going to be more organised about getting spring bulbs in this year!

I cant help as my garden just looks like a collection of twigs at the moment. The pre Christmas snow killed off stuff I hoped would survive. Following with interest

Winter flowering honeysuckle. It smells amazing too. Every Winter I feel glad that I planted it ! I normally have lots of Hellebores but they look a bit feeble this year, I am not sure why. One clump of snowdrops showing but not yet fully open. Lots of mud ! Various things in bud, Magnolia Stellata has lovely furry buds.

My cornus stems are a nice splash of colour

My last leek.

Snowdrops
Primroses, but I bought them in bloom from the garden centre. Pretty sure my own don’t bloom until April

Everything else is looking completely sad and dormant.
Exciting to see spring bulbs poking through, though

Mainly Hellebores and the colour of my tracelospermum plants on the fence is nice. Skimmia are bright green but that’s about it!

It also depends where you are.
I’ve got winter honeysuckle, winter jasmine,viburnum , aconites, snowdrops hellebores and the first show of lungwort. Many of my roses have sprays of red hips. I’ll prune them in March.
By mid-February, there’ll be a lot more.

All about the frosted seed pods at the moment especially the honesty!

I don't worry too much about winter flowers ... I like the thrill of spring flowers after a low key winter! Hellebores will be great soon though.

Furry magnolia Stellata buds is a lovely image- should have planted mine nearer the house!

I haven't really got many evergreens or plants/shrubs with winter interest. Partly because they're expensive to buy.
Where do you get the 'expensive' idea from?
I have various evergreens:
-boring (but in leaf!) roundish things like rhododendrons, box balls, hebe
-variegated-leaf things like aucuba, euonymus, ivy
-big-leaf things like bergenia and castor oil plant

All the above can be propagated quite easily (i.e. cheaply!)

Winter flowering violas-they've survived all the frost and snow!

Roses, magnolias, bougainvillea but I'm in the southern hemisphere.

Cyclamen coum, Cornus mas, Viburnum bodnantense, winter jasmine, winter flowering cherry, witch hazel, prostate rosemary, winter flowering honeysuckle all in flower at the moment. Mahonia aquifolium evergreen and about to flower, also Camellia, hellebores.

Snake bark maple, Cornus “midwinter fire” and similar, some of the willows all good for bark colour. Pernettya, Skimmia berries aren’t liked by birds and persist over winter

Have you tried buying bareroot? It's in season and you can get lovely things for a couple of pounds or a fiver at the top end.

I am working really hard to get my garden better in winter, but at the moment, I have:

• a lovely Daphne (scented, pink flowers. They aren't super cheap but sometimes you can get small ones. Mine was £2 at Morrisons in about 2010 and is big now).
• Cornus midwinter beauty (cheap; bare root)
• Cornus alba siberica 'baton rouge' (ditto)
• three witchhazels (I went a bit crazy; I've got Diane, Jelena and Pallida; Pallida is probably best value as it has a lovely scent and is like a ray of sunshine - the flowers are like little bundles of lemon zest). They aren't super cheap, mine were priced at @20 and are about 40cm high, but they are so pretty.
• Viburnum tinus (cheap, one of those tiny pots you get from supermarkets, but you can get it bare root). It's flowering now and is pink/cream with lovely evergreen leaves.
• Osmanthus burkwoodii (evergreen; available bareroot, as is delavii. Both nice dark green).
• Acer palmatum 'Bi Hoo'. Obvs not evergreen but lovely golden stems with a flush of pink/red at the tips. Lots of acers have nice bare stems.
• Hellebores - I wish I had more, my mum has beautiful ones, but they don't love my soil. Very worth trying if they do, because they spread like mad and are gorgeous.
• Ordinary berried ivy. Obviously only suitable if you have somewhere where it can scramble, but ivy berries are really sculptural and pretty, and the flowers are great for bees. It was here when we came.
• Salix Britzensis - a lovely warm orange-red stemmed willow; I am going to coppice it heavily or it would get too big for me. Widely available bare root and cheap.
• Ordinary hazel, which has yellow catkins at this time of year.
• Winter aconites (very early to flower; lovely deep yellow).
• Crocus.
• Clematis cirrhosa - I don't know what variety; again, it was a couple of quid at Morrisons and probably only labelled 'clematis'.
• Sarcococca confusa - scented, evergreen. Mine is tiny and was a fiver but I think you could get it cheaper.
• cyclamen. The leaves are so beautiful, and some of mine have flowers atm.

There are loads of other things I really want - I came on here intending to make a thread asking for winter garden recs. I know a lot of people rate heucheras for winter colour - you can get lovely vibrant shades. I am a bit 50/50 about them as they're not long-lived. I also think I need more shaped evergreen in my garden. I've got a couple of taxus baccata and some lovely rosemary, both of which are sitting unplanted because I've not decided what to do with them, but I must!

You cheat! Making us all jealous!

My pampas grass looks ok despite the snow , I’ve got another large grass that also survived quite well and my potted bamboo look as good as they did last summer . Everything else looks a bit sad at the moment .

Very twiggy in the main. Sage is doing well. Lots of bulbs peeking through, though this autumn I’m definitely planting more.
Pheasant Eye daffodils are my favourites.

Cyclamen, Hellebore and surprisingly Pulmonaria.

Cyclamen
Hellebore
Sarcoccoa (fragrant box)
Bulbs are coming up
My jasmines & honeysuckles are evergreen too.

Hellebores. Variegated ivy. Few cyclamen struggled back up from last year. Only have things in pots in a flagged yard. Can't wait for spring!

Ah thanks everyone - that's so helpful. I was feeling a bit flat about how drab it all looks but clearly there's a lot more that could be added than immediately came to mind for me.

@SarahAndQuack That's a really helpful reminder about buying bare root. For some reason I only really associate bare root plants with roses fruits. And what a gorgeous list you have!

@senua I think the 'expensive' idea comes from the lovely but wildly pricey independent garden centres near me! Their perennials are £££.

It's a very flat time of year, isn't it? This year especially, I feel.

Bare root is so worth it - if you have an independent nursery near you, they may be able to take orders? It's worth asking. (Full disclosure: I work in a plant nursery and there is something so special about seeing the bare root come in - and then I know 90% of customers never even realise it's there, because it comes in and is sold so fast, and so many people don't know to ask for it.)

Cuttings take a while but now is a good time to take them if you have friends with plants you like. Hardwood cttings.

ive got a witch hazel in a pot and a daphne. I’ve also got grasses that are evergreen and give a bit of movement. I also plant lots of bulbs.

Maybe have a look online then? Crocus isn’t expensive and the plants have always been good, for me.