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

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

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

Discover what makes these plants popular around Christmas time

Warm up chilly days with sizzling colour

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