What’s best way to avoid frozen fish?

What should I do if my fish pond freezes over this winter? – Iain, Blackheath DAVID: Protect your pond from freezing in the first place with a tennis ball. Float the ball on the surface – when it freezes over, remove the ball and you will have a hole to let air into the pond. If it does freeze completely, use boiling water to melt a hole. Smashing the ice can cause shock waves that are harmful to fish.

Has your garden started to look a little bland? As trees and shrubs begin slowing down for winter, you can soon find the garden turns into a winter slumberland – all bare and colourless.

Looking out of the window becomes entirely uninspiring as everything shuts up shop for winter.

It’s tempting to prune it back and then leave it stripped bare until the daffodils poke through in March.

Yet there are a load of great winterflowering plants that can provide lovely eye-catching splashes of colour long before then.

You might worry that anything you put in now will wither away in the really cold spells – but there are plenty of extremely hardy options that can easily withstand the British winter.

Here are ten of my favourite winterflowering plants – all resilient enough to survive the frosts.

They’ll help to cheer your garden up

Christmas rose is a pretty white flower that can tolerate cold