Tops tips for creating your own Winter Garden.

Damian Harris, Head Gardener at Dunham Massey, has the following tips for creating your own:

• Visit nurseries, garden centres and gardens in your area, to see what’s in flower or looks interesting
• Plants for a small winter garden might include Daphne – a shrub which comes in all colours, shapes and sizes; Virburnum Bodnantense ‘Dawn’ – a shrub which has clusters of pink scented flowers throughout the winter months and a fabulous smell; witch hazels – particularly the corkscrew hazel Corylus Avellana ‘Contorta’ with its twisted stems
• A larger tree is Prunus Serrula which has mahogany coloured bark and cherry blossom in the spring – at the other end of the scale cyclamen and dwarf iris always add colour and lift the spirits on a dull winter’s day

© National Trust

Damian 's tips for early spring:

• Get washing! We give the bark of trees such as birch and cherry which have such lovely colours, a good clean to bring out those lovely hues
• Remember to plant scented winter shrubs close to your house or a regularly used path and don’t neglect plants in pots at this time of year
• Plant spring flowering bulbs through your herbaceous plants, they take up less space in your garden and help extend the interest through the seasons
• Anything in flower will need watering and will benefit from feeding
• Don’t forget to plant snowdrops, the heralds of spring

© National Trust

The Winter Garden is open daily* from 11am – 4pm (or dusk if earlier)

* Closed Christmas Day and 25 November for staff training