Best of the bunch

●●Winter-flowering heather Heather provides the burst of colour you need at this time of year, whether in designated heather borders, alpine gardens or pots, in colours ranging from deep pink and purple to white.

They make a fantastic carpet of colour in front of evergreen shrubs and the E. carnea varieties will grow in slightly alkaline soil as well as acid.

Some heathers will even give you fragrant flowers, such as Erica x veitchii ‘Exeter,’ which bears masses of elegant bell-shaped scented flowers opening from rosy pink buds.

These evergreen shrubs do best in well-drained, acid soil in full sun. If you are planting them in a pot, go for ericaceous compost or John Innes and don’t let them dry out or become waterlogged.