It’s not too difficult to have a summer garden that is brimful of colour but why should we put up with a bleak scene around us through the winter months?

On crisp, sunny mornings the colour schemes of winter can be far more subtle than the bright flowers of summer. 

The secret, of course, is evergreens in varying shades of green, yellow and silver, and those shrubs and other plants that flower in winter.

The climbing happy wanderer is one, with its attractive green foliage all the year and a mass of tiny blue flowers now.

Diosma gives a flash of gold all year and a mass of small pink flowers from mid-winter.

The Chinese witch hazel has fragrant yellow-gold flowers on bare branches from mid-winter to early spring. It grows three or four metres high and is a dense shrub with rounded light green leaves. These turn gold in autumn.

The orange firethorn has white flowers in summer but is valued for an almost unrivalled berry display. The bright orange berries are on the bush from late summer until mid-winter.

Male plants of the silk tassel bush bear pendulous yellow or pale green silky catkins in mid-winter.

The laurustinas (viburnum tinus) is a tough plant that requires virtually no maintenance and grows in even the poorest soils. Dense and compact, it makes an ideal clipped or unclipped screen or hedge. It has white, scented flowers in mid-winter and spring.

Camellia japonica is another bush prized for its winter flowers. There are hundreds of varieties.

Correas, or native fuchsias, have beautiful, bell-shaped pink, red or white flowers. Correa alba, the white one, has its main display in winter and spring.

Douglas juniper is a useful ground cover. Its feathery, grey green foliage becomes a colourful purple in winter.

Giving your house plants too much water during winter is a common problem. The first indication of this will be the tips of the leaves turn black.

If the problem continues, the excess water will sour the soil by leaching the nutrients from it, ultimately killing your prized plant.

If the tips turn brown the problem could be not enough water.

A more likely suggestion at this time of the year is that the brown tips are due to a lack of humidity because the room is being heated.

Most plants require less water during winter, but because of artificial heating, the leaves often need regular spraying with tepid water. They like some air movement too.

Parents have probably noticed that children have a natural affinity with mud. 

Gardening parents will immediately recognise this as a good omen.

Properly nurtured and refined, this early trait can lead to a lifelong love of gardening.

Unfortunately there isn’t much to do outdoors at the moment except make mud pies, but indoors children can be given a taste of gardening which will whet their appetite for spring.

Sprouting seeds on wet paper towels is an excellent way to introduce them to how plants grow.

Most of the common flower and vegetable seeds will germinate readily in this way if kept moist and in a warm, sunny position.

The drawback is that most take quite a while to germinate.

What kids need is speed and edibility, so choose seeds that are used to make the bean sprouts you find in Chinese dishes, or the alfalfa everyone puts in salad roles these days.

Other plants that get on with the job are the appropriately named impatiens, or busy lizzie, the spider plant, wandering jew and philodendron.