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

Discover what makes these plants popular around Christmas time

Mahonia x media ‘Winter Sun’ Forgive me please because I have, in my youth, been a bit sneery about mahonias. I recognise that this was a mistake as they have an awful lot in their favour: colour at a

FACT FILE What A genus of architectural, evergreen and predominantly spiny-leaved shrubs from the barberry family (Berberidaceae), bearing remarkably luminous, highly fragrant flowers in autumn and wi

Step into a magical winter garden in the Weald of Kent, where cyclamens, hellebores and crocuses add splashes of pink and purple to the white carpet of snowdrops

Lynn Farram and the congregation of Christ Church, Norris Green, Liverpool