Gardening in autumn and winter

The robin is our beloved Christmas bird, who brightens the frosty garden with its red breast and beautiful song. Lure this characterful singer by providing its favourite food and nesting sites.

Easy to grow in pots or borders, cyclamen provide much-needed colour over a long period during autumn and winter. Hazel Sillver looks at the different types and how to grow them.

The electric-blue trumpets of Asiatic gentians blast away the autumn gloom. Hazel Sillver looks at which of these eye-catching alpines to plant and how to grow them.

Plant narcissus bulbs now and look forward to a gorgeous mass of billowing ivory and gold come spring.

Our garden editor Clare Foster discusses how to bring the glorious colours of autumn, through leaves, berries, stems and bark, into your garden each year

In an abridged extract from his book A New Cottage Garden, Mark Bolton reveals which plants thrive in his garden at this time of year and explains why we should incorporate them into our own schemes

With their striking fuzzy flowers in summer and blaze of colourful foliage in autumn, the smoke bush (cotinus) is a plant for year-round interest, but they really come into their own in September and October

The first flowers of the year, snowdrops seem like miracles when they bloom in January and February. Hazel Sillver looks at their history and the best forms to create glorious white carpets.

In an extract from How to Grow the Flowers, Marianne Mogendorff and Camila Romain give an overview of the best flowers to grow in autumn

How to make topiary look tremendous – and, crucially, not twee

Including weekend activities for nature fans, big and small 

Ornamental grasses that create structure for borders as well as beautiful autumn colours in the garden - perfect for when herbaceous plants are retreating for the winter

Colourful and contorted stems brighten the garden in the depths of winter and provide beautiful decoration for the house. Hazel Sillver looks at some of the most striking stems to grow

In an extract from his new book, Gardening with Winter Plants, Tony Hall, Head of Temperate Plants at Kew Gardens, offers advice on planting attractive containers to see you through the colder months

Lottie Delamain considers the characteristic of Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf's famous style of naturalistic planting, and advises on how to get the look at home

Indoor and vertical garden products are the perfect present for city-dwelling, garden-deprived friends and family members

Poetic depictions of nature in the coldest months inspire the writer Daisy Garnett’s essay on this time of rest for gardeners