Kew Gardens in winter

Seasons and flowering times can vary by up to three weeks so the periods below are only approximate.

From November right round to February, there's a surprising variety to see in the Gardens. There is winter bark to look out for; the pretty winter-flowering Cornelian cherry and the simultaneous flowers and strawberry-like fruit of the strawberry tree.

In midwinter, the flowers of the hellebores in the Woodland Glade look downwards to the ground, hiding their beauty. Clematis cirrhosa is one of the few evergreen clematis and is called cirrhosa because its late winter flowers are speckled inside, looking like a diseased liver.

The New Year brings winter-flowering shrubs, such as wintersweet and witch hazel, with heady scents and a mass of flowers, in the Winter Garden all round the Ice House; and there's a great show of snowdrops by the Ruined Arch and in the Rock Garden. The 'silk tassel bush' gets its name from the splendidly long and slender catkins draping all over it in January and February.

A stroll along Holly Walk could bring on the festive spirit, and it's also a comforting thought, visiting Kew in the depths of winter, that you can always warm up in one of the glasshouses and imagine you have escaped to the lush tropics.