It’s tempting to only visit lovely gardens on warm summer’s days –and it’s true you can then linger longer and everything sparkles in the sun. But it’s also revealing to visit a grand garden throughout the year.

At a recent early spring trip to RHS Wisley, for example, it was almost shocking to see the deep herbaceous borders cut right back. It’s a luxury most of us can’t have in domestic gardens but it was fascinating to see exactly how the plants were placed.

It was also interesting to see what was giving the gardens structure – as well as the flowers that lift the evergreens with colour in March. The stars of the show were:

This Magnolia xx, with the bright pink camellias behind.

Sarcococca – shrub I’d never really noticed much before, but it was everywhere.

Skimmia and xxx complemented each other wonderfully

Wonderfully vibrant deep pink hellebore against camellia