Seasons: Winter

Handsome, thorny and productive on poor dry soil; good in a big pot.

A sub-Himalayan scrambler with brick-red bracts through the cool months.

Curtains of orange through the cool months on a big pergola.

Flat clusters of small stars that butterflies can actually land on.

The garden chrysanthemum of the north-Indian winter, sold by the crate at Diwali.

A fortnight of spectacle and then a head of seed the birds will take.

Edible flowers and leaves, and a magnet that pulls aphids off your vegetables.

Flowers every day of the year and asks for nothing. Indigenous to the deccan.

Regrows from the root end of a shop-bought bunch — the cheapest crop there is.

Plant single cloves in October and lift whole bulbs in March.