Add heucheras for colourful foliage and ferns for a lush effect and
underplant everything with dwarf narcissi for a splash of cheer in spring.
UNDERPLANT CLIMBERS WITH WINTER PLANTS IF you have climbers in pots next to the house, whose leaves have fallen and are now offering no colour or interest, use the bare space to
underplant them with brightly coloured winter flowering plants such as cyclamen, heather, variegated ivy or ornamental cabbage.
Underplant with bulbs, crocus or diminutive daffodils to extend into spring.
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Underplant large, foliage plants such as cannas with smaller flowering species like dahliettas and gazanias.
Underplant with ground-hugging ajuga, alchemilla, epimediums, bergenia, hellebores, lamium, pulmonaria and soft shield ferns.
Underplant with early flowering snowdrops, primroses and hellebores for a display to lift the spirits.
Underplant those with midriff plants such as geraniums, sages or begonias and then have a series of trailers.
To rejuvenate a conifer which has gone brown in the centre, remove the dead branches, cut off a few lower larger branches and
underplant the conifer with ground-cover plants.
To give winter-flowering heathers a new life in spring,
underplant with miniature bulbs such as narcissi, crocus, chionodoxa, snowdrops and irises.
Cut off a few of the lower large branches to enable you to
underplant with ground cover plants which will withstand dry shade such as vinca and cranesbill geranium.
Add water-retaining granules to the soil and mulch or
underplant with spring bulbs or shallow-rooted plants that will keep weeds down and moisture in.
If you want some springtime surprises, it's your last chance to
underplant them with bulbs such as tulips and hyacinths.