Plants which are looking good this month

Lonicera purpusii Winter Beauty flowers on the bare branches from January to March. These creamy flowers have an intensely sweet fragrance. This form is relatively compact and, we think, the best of the winter flowering honeysuckles making about 1.5 metres tall and maybe a little wider.

Malus Red Sentinel fruits prolifically every year and has attractive flowers in April-May. In addition the fruits, which persist into late winter make good crab apple jelly and are attractive to wildlife. The trees are attractive to Goldcrests, Blackbirds, Greenfinches and Marsh tits.

Viburnum Charles Lamont has flowers of better form than the often cluttered blooms of "bodnantense Dawn". It is also rather freeer flowering - you can often find the odd bloom in midsummer but its in winter that it excels.

This delightful little Victorian primrose starts flowering in January and goes on right through spring. Primula vulgaris sibthorpii is rather more compact than the native form.

Clematis armandii has big swags of evergreen foliage which look at their best if allowed to cascade down a wall or tree canopy. Clusters of cream flowers emerge in late winter. Not for a cold site.

Sarcocca ruscifolia chinensis - the Christmas Box- is a small glossy leaved evergreen which carries dark red fruits through winter and has small creamy and fragrant blooms in January. It is remarkably very amenable and tolerates chalky soils and shady borders. Grows to a metre or so.

Not in flower at the moment but the winter leaves of lamiums (this is Lamium Elaine Franks) always look delightful. Good ground cover plants between shrubs or under herbaceous subject, they flower in spring. All aspects including shade.

Ribes laurifolium, photo taken 28 January 2004 growing against a shady E facing wall. This delightful evergreen has long racemes of parchment flowers - just opening in the picture and, because of its leggy habit, is rather better against a wall where it reaches 2 metres. This form was given to us many years ago by the then head gardener at Rosemoor Richard Lee - long before the RHS took it over.

Pittisporum are dependable large shrubs, this is our own selection "Holbrook". They provide useful structure in the winter garden and tropical evening scents from the flowers on warm spring nights.

Lungworts are great for ground cover in part shade and do well between shrubs or trees. This is Pulmonaria Marjorie Fish.The leaves are good for many months of the year.

Miscanthus sinensis gracillimus flowers late in the season and still retains the blooms well through winter. The delightful fine and graceful leaf which is evident all spring and summer is beautifully complement by these red tinged heads. Grows to about 120cm with us.

Acacia dealbata makes a graceful small tree but demands a warm and sheltered site. Often seen at its best in towns where the extra warmth helps but ours does pretty well, photo taken in January.