By Sally Gregson.

When the frosts have all but destroyed the autumn-planted pots of pansies, and the cold weather has set in, it’s a good time to take a fresh look at winter displays.

These early, dark weeks can be enlivened with vibrant, young plants of heucheras, coloured sedges and Iris reticulata that are readily available in nurseries and garden centres locally.

Choose the sunniest spot outdoors that you can see from the warmth of the house, such as a garden table visible from inside, and arrange a grouping of brightly coloured pots.
Fill them with plants that contrast strongly and add pizzazz – the ‘black’ grass – Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ – with one of the new apricot Heucheras. Or, in a blue-glazed container, combine a gold-and-green variegated Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’ with rich blue polyanthus for later in the month.
Bright red polyanthus varieties combine well with variegated Euonymus fortunei too, and pink-flowered wild Cyclamen coum with chalky leaves are happy on their own. Their leaves continue the display after the flowers have dropped.

Garden centres and nurseries often have little pots of bulbs for sale that were planted in the autumn and, for those of us who forgot to pot some up, they make excellent combinations with the heucheras, the coloured sedges, the Cyclamen coum. Keep them all dead-headed. They can be tipped out when they are over and planted in the garden.

Pots of Iris reticulata look charming nestling in old teacups. It’s worth scouring the charity shops for pre-loved teacups and saucers for this purpose. Ensure the small plastic plant pots will fit in the teacups so just the neck of the pot is visible – water them, and place them in a cold greenhouse until they are ready for their starring roles. Then bring them out in bud to sit on the garden table like a prop from Miss Haversham’s tea-party. Each flower only lasts a few glorious days but they signal the beginning of the end of winter and the coming of spring.