How To Grow... Winter-Flowering Clematis

These iconic delicate bloomers transform fences, trellises and pergolas with profuse flowers in colder months. Anne explains how to aim even higher with clematis

- Anne

At the onset of winter, a well-planned garden will almost cradle the house, its familiar outlines of trees, hedges and shrubs staving off a bare landscape. Climbers add height, evergreens bring leafiness, and winter flowers coaxed open by bouts of sunshine are worth more than a whole bed of summer colour.

As long as soil is well-drained and neither wet nor frozen, add plants for winter interest now, while the need is obvious and there is plenty of inspiration around. Hardy, well-grown plants will take in their dormant season, but smaller, less well-established or slightly tender ones are best kept in a sheltered spot or frost-free greenhouse until spring.