How to care for evergreen winter shrubs, according to an RHS expert

Shrubs offer so much to winter gardens. Take mahonia, whose long racemes of bright yellow, pollinator-friendly flowers start now and go on for weeks into the winter on upright evergreen bushes . Examples such as “Lionel Fortescue” and “Winter Sun”, which can attain 2m or more, happily, respond well to pruning in spring.

Even more dramatic is the male Garrya elliptica “James Roof”, which bears masses of long grey-green catkins from the new year. We seem to get milder winters, which will favour these slightly tender shrubs, although it is wise to grow them in the shelter of a wall in the coldest areas. In theory, it is larger than mahonia but it, too, can be safely pruned in spring.

Other handsome evergreens – viburnums, for example – have both striking leaves and also berries. Viburnu