Gardens don't close for the winter. Parts of them sleep and the rest show their bare bones and true shape.

Winter is a time to ask questions. Does this garden really work for the purposes I need? Did last year's planting reach its true potential? Is that plant in the right place or might it work better somewhere else?

Winter is the time to assess the design of the garden and begin to plan any changes that might be needed.

It is also the time of pollarding and pruning, cutting and tidying. It's the time to see the actual structure of plants and shrubs. Many will need pruning to restore their true shape. Others will need cutting back hard to encourage better flowering or more vigorous growth next year.

Time to plan

Winter is also the time to plan. Numerous gardens suffer from a lack of planning. There is still the temptation to go to a garden centre, fill a trolley with what looks best and put them in! It doesn't really work.

The basic garden philosophy is: right plant, right place just like people, plants need to be nurtured and loved so that they fulfil their true potential. So winter is a time for seed catalogues and garden books planning what works best in your patch of the world's earth. But it's not all bare bones.

Some of the most exquisite scents come in the winter. Plant a Christmas box (Saracoccocca humilis) by your kitchen door and let its scents refresh you as you labour over the Christmas turkey. Try Virburnum bodnantense for it's vibrant pink flowers and dense sweet smell.

Glorious splash

Then there is the intriguing spider like flowers of the witch hazel family. The vibrant yellow or orange flowers of Hammamelis x intermedia will not only produce a glorious splash of winter colour. The spider flowers have a haunting scent on a crisp winter days.

If that is not enough in the way of colour to lift us out of sad and winter blues, the rich plum, burgundy and black hues of the hellebore family will provide yet more winter interest. These are the plants that sleep at a different season. Helleborus 'December Dawn' says it all; Winter is not the time of hibernation. It is the dawn of another year in the garden.