This month there are signs of life in the garden. The days are lengthening the birds are singing, bulbs are pushing up and shoots on plants are bursting.  With a bit of planning you can have colour and scent in your February garden.

First up for stem colour is Rubus cockburianus (White Stemmed Bramble) a member of the rose family with its white stems that really show up in dark and dismal days. It grows up to two meters high and can form an impenetrable thicket. Under planted with early flowering daffodils it can look spectacular.

If you want a plant that is evergreen, a good ground cover, can grow in shade and produces a heady scent in the middle of winter you could do no better than to plant Sarcococca hookeriana ( Christmas or Sweet Box) The flowers are hardly noticeable but you cannot ignore the scent!

For a bit of rustic coloured leaves in the winter Bergenia “Sunningdale” (Elephants Ears) is perfect. All summer it’s leaves are green and in the winter cold weather turn a marvellous shade of copper. Good as a ground cover and tolerates drought conditions. And if that was not enough, in spring dark red flowers appear!

If you are after coloured stems throughout the winter and into the spring all the Cornuses do a great job.  Reds, yellows and orange, easy to grow and can be pruned hard every year!  Cornus alba “Siberica” (Dogwood) is one of my favourites with deep dark stem that last all winter though to late spring.

Iris in flower in February? You expect snowdrops and crocus but this Iris Iris ungicularis to give it it proper name  is full of surprises. Only a few inches tall it can be hidden by its leaves which are almost a foot tall. It thrives on neglect! Leave it to grow I a dry sunny position such as the base of a wall and you will be rewarded with dark blue flowers from Christmas to Easter.