With their black-twigged tops and silver stems, birch trees look particularly striking in winter. Here, four symmetrically planted birches rise out of a rectangle of snowdrops and variegated ivy, their branches echoed by the white twigs of the rubus bushes planted around the perimeter. Cone-shaped holly trees and box borders provide a neat counterpoint, while pots of Christmas roses add colour.

1. Mark out the site carefully, then dig your beds and prepare themby adding compost or manure.
2. Plant the birch trees, holly and box first. You can buy box ready-clipped or, if you prefer, plant small plants and allow them to grow, then clip them.
3. Plant the rubus bushes and the 'Ivalace' ivy at their bases. Snowdrops are best planted as growing plants rather than dry bulbs.
4. The variegated ivies around the birch trees should be planted around 20 cm apart and allowed to grow into a dense carpet, then kept clipped at a maximum height of 20 cm.
5. Plant the hellebores in containers and leave them undisturbed. They dislike being moved, but should settle down in a season or two.

1. Betula papyrifera (silver birch)
2. Ilex aquifolium 'Handsworth New Silver' (clipped into cones)
3. Dwarf box
4. Helleborus niger 'Potter's Wheel' (Christmas rose)
5. Galanthus (snowdrops)
6. Hedera helix 'Ivalace' (dark-green ivy with wavy leaves)
7. Hedera helix 'Anne Marie' (variegated ivy)
8. Rubus cockburnianus

APRIL 2004
ORIGINAL IDEA JANE NEWDICK
ILLUSTRATION BETTY BIB