Skimmia

Skimmia 'Rubella' is a winter plant that understands the assignment. While most of the garden is dormant and bare, this compact evergreen shrub is carrying clusters of dark red buds — tight, conical panicles the colour of mulled wine — that sit above the glossy, dark green leaves like little promises. They form in autumn and hold through the entire winter, colouring up in the cold, getting richer and deeper as the weeks go on. They don't open until spring, which means you get five months of those gorgeous red buds.

I use it in winter pots. A good 'Rubella' in a handsome container by the front door, underplanted with snowdrops or cyclamen, is one of the most effective winter displays you can create — and it costs almost nothing once you've bought the plant. The dark, leathery leaves have a slightly aromatic quality if you crush them, something resinous and clean.

When the buds finally open in March or April, the flowers are small, starry, and white, with a sweet, almost lily-of-the-valley fragrance that surprises everyone who smells it for the first time. I cut a few stems for the house in early spring and they scent the hallway beautifully. The buds are the main event — the flowers feel like a bonus.

'Rubella' is a male clone, which means it won't produce berries — you need a female skimmia nearby for that. But I've never minded. The buds are the point. They carry the garden through those long weeks between Christmas and spring when everything else has given up. A plant that looks its best when everything around it looks its worst — that's earned my loyalty.