Discover what makes these plants popular around Christmas time

Plundering a local byway for a spot of festive foraging, John Lewis-Stempel finds all life proliferating in the multitudinous micro-habitat of the winter hedgerow

P leached trees are often described as ‘hedges on stilts’. But that somewhat prosaic description doesn’t do justice to just how versatile, useful and beautiful an artfully pleached tree can be. Specia

Celebrated in the loveliest of carols, holly warms hearts anew each winter, but there’s more to the spiky gem than merely Christmas cheer, writes Deborah Nicholls-Lee

Whether winter-faded ferns, the spindly harvestman or the tyrannical stare of an irate chicken, through-lines from the prehistoric to our modern age are all around us in November, says John Lewis-Stempel

Say “Rainforest”, and the average sailor will conjure up an image of some exotic tropical landscape covered in jungle that is home to a diverse array of plants and animals. I first came across such a