What to plant in January

Three to plant in January

Bare-root and dormant stock goes in now — far cheaper than potted, and it establishes faster because the plant is asleep while it settles.

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  Scent

  Bare-root rose 'Gertrude Jekyll'

  Rosa 'Ausbord'

  Rich pink rosettes with the truest old-rose perfume of any modern rose. Bare-root in January costs about half what a potted one does in June, and it grows away better.

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  Winter flower

  Hellebore 'Anna's Red'

  Helleborus × hybridus

  Deep plum flowers over marbled leaves, opening while the rest of the border is bare. Cut last year's tatty foliage away now so you can actually see them.

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  Foolproof

  Snowdrop

  Galanthus nivalis

  Buy them 'in the green' — growing, not as dry bulbs — and plant them straight into damp shade. Dry snowdrop bulbs are the most disappointing purchase in gardening.

Garden ideas to nick this month

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  Paper, pencil, one hour

  Draw the garden you actually have

  Sketch the beds roughly to scale and mark where the sun lands at midday. An hour in January stops three wrong plant purchases in May — and you'll finally see which corner has been dead space all along.

• 

  The good varieties sell out

  Order seed before February

  The interesting cultivars — the dark cosmos, the heritage sweet peas — are gone by early spring. Order now, store the packets somewhere cool and dry, and sow to a plan rather than to whatever's left.

A garden to visit

RHS Wisley, Surrey

The winter walk, in low sun

January at Wisley is all bark and stem — scarlet dogwoods and chalk-white birches doing work no flower could manage in this light. It makes the case for planting for winter better than any argument could.