Winter walks at RHS Gardens

Gardens don’t rest in winter, and nor do gardeners. There is so much to gain from visiting a garden through the winter, not just for exercise in the colder, darker months, but also to gain valuable inspiration. Expert planting combinations created by horticulturists have been nurtured all year to provide spectacular displays right through the winter months.

RHS Garden Harlow Carr, North Yorkshire

The Winter Walk at RHS Garden Harlow Carr

One of the highlights at RHS Harlow Carr is the Winter Walk, which begins near the entrance to the garden. This pays homage to plants that bring colour and texture to the garden in winter. The vibrant stems of Cornus (dogwood) and Salix (willow), in colours ranging from bright yellow through to black, stand out against feathery conifers and clipped yew hedging, while the ghostly trunks of Betula utilis punctuate the borders and make great specimen trees all year round.

Many of the flowering shrubs along the Winter Walk are strongly scented, and their intoxicating fragrances often catch visitors’ attention before they notice the flowers – simply follow your nose to find the displays. Sarcococca is one of the first plants to flower, with sweetly scented, delicate white blooms among dense evergreen foliage. Viburnum also offers delightful fragrance, while a collection of daphnes provides a succession of scents from Christmas to April.

From mid-February, drifts of Cyclamen coum, Eranthis (winter aconite) and miniature Iris light up the walk at ground level. November-flowering snowdrop Galanthus elwesii ‘Mrs Macnamara’ is one of the earliest ‘spring’ bulbs, followed by a wonderful collection of snowdrops to see in flower until March.

Other areas to visit: Alpine House, Woodland, Arboretum, Sandstone Rock Garden and Heather Beds.

RHS Garden Hyde Hall, Essex

Each year the team create amazing woven structures at RHS Garden Hyde Hall

The Winter Garden at RHS Hyde Hall is filled with trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants and

These are fleshy, rounded, underground storage organs, usually sold and planted while dormant. Examples include daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, lilies, onions and garlic. The term is often used to cover other underground storage organs, including corms, tubers and rhizomes.

RHS Garden Wisley, Surrey

Colourful winter stems on the Winter Walk at RHS Garden Wisley

The Wisley Winter Walk in Seven Acres offers a fantastic assortment of plants chosen for their winter colour, shape, structure and scent. Until the end of March, you can explore a self-guided trail around the walk using the RHS Garden Wisley App to discover more about the star plants of the season. The scene evolves throughout winter and each year the team add new plants, experimenting with new cultivars and planting combinations.

Snakebark maples such as Acer davidii VIPER (‘Mindavi’) and Acer × conspicuum ‘Phoenix’ have intriguing ‘skin’, which contrasts with the glossy, rich red, flaky

Bark is the outermost layer of woody plants (trees, shrubs and woody climbers). It is several cells thick and provides protection against physical damage, disease and environmental stresses. Bark comes in a wide variety of colours and patterns, and these can help gardeners when identifying plants. The fissures and crevices of bark on older plants also creates valuable habitat for many garden creatures as well as lichens and small plants.

RHS Garden Rosemoor, North Devon

Striking colour from trees, shrubs and underplanting at RHS Garden Rosemoor

The Winter Garden at RHS Rosemoor has had an exciting makeover. The expanded design by RHS Chelsea gold medal winning garden designer Jo Thompson doubles the size of the existing garden to create a single, unified landscape that celebrates the beauty and drama of winter.

Allowing light to catch on bark and branches, the garden’s layout is carefully aligned to the low angle of the winter sun, creating moments of seasonal magic, while the planting palette of silver, russet and green adds a sense of quiet vibrancy. The new planting features trees with striking bark, including a stand of paperbark maples Acer griseum and a glade of 70 birch trees with cultivars that change trunk colour as they age and their bark peels away.

Equally stunning in winter is the Foliage Garden, which is packed with inspiration for making your gardens look fabulous all year round. The planting in this area is an exciting, visually vibrant mix of evergreen and

Deciduous refers to plants (mainly trees and shrubs) that lose their leaves seasonally, usually during autumn. This is a natural process triggered by the season's shorter days and lower temperatures and allows plants to conserve energy during the winter months.

RHS Garden Bridgewater, Salford

Head for warmth in the Paradise Garden glasshouses at RHS Garden Bridgewater

The Worsley Welcome Garden at Bridgewater has a tapestry of planting that continues to stand majestically through the frostiest of receptions. Large swathes of grasses and tough

Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.

• There are also over 200 Partner Gardens to visit around the UK, and further afield. Search for your nearest garden >