A. palmatum is a variable small tree with small, deeply 5 to 7-lobed leaves often colouring well in autumn. Small red flowers in spring are followed by winged, red or green fruits

A deciduous shrub with delicate purple foliage turning red in the autumn.

Pretty, pale, a symbol of purity. This common tree, with its silver-white bark, is favoured by gardeners who want to renew and purify their land for coming year.

B. sempervirens is a large, slow-growing evergreen shrub to 5m or more, compact in habit, with small, glossy oval or oblong leaves, and small, yellowish flowers in the leaf axils.

Cornus alba 'Elegantissima' is a vigorous upright shrub which is a very good value plant for home gardens. It has very attractive cream-green variegated leaves in summer and in autumn the leaves turn reddish-orange before they drop.

C. franchetii is a shrub up to 3m high with a graceful shape of arching branches, evergreen or semi-evergreen leaves 3cm long, glossy grey-green above with white undersides, and clusters in early summer of 5-15 flowers which are white tinged outside with pink, followed by oblong orange-scarlet fruits; the flowers are attractive to bees

'Quicksilver' is a large, deciduous, suckering shrub with silvery shoots, silvery-scaly, ovate leaves and small, fragrant creamy-yellow flowers from silvery buds in summer.

G. biloba is a deciduous tree to 25m, conical when young, becoming more irregular with age. Leaves to 12cm in width, fan-shaped and often bilobed, turning clear yellow in autumn. Unpleasantly scented dull yellow fruits in autumn on female plants

I. aquifolium is a medium-sized evergreen tree, slow-growing when young, with dark, glossy green, undulate and usually strongly spiny leaves. Small, dull white flowers in spring are followed by bright red berries, on pollinated female plants

L. decidua is a deciduous conifer making a large conical tree, broadening with age, with cream young shoots bearing soft, light green needle-like leaves in whorls, turning yellow in autumn. Flowers small, cones to 4cm, erect.

'Aureum' is a dense, large evergreen shrub of erect habit with oval, rich yellow leaves sometimes marked green in the centre. Flowers small, dull white, in small panicles. Fruit a small glossy black berry

This shrub is semi-evergreen, so it can lose some of its leaves in winter. In colder regions or more exposed gardens, it may lose them all, but then fresh new foliage appears again in spring.

L. vulgare is a bushy deciduous shrub with dull green, lance-shaped leaves and terminal panicles of small, white, unpleasantly scented flowers in summer, followed by small black berries

'Susan' is an upright medium-sized deciduous shrub with deep reddish-purple buds opening in mid spring to fragrant, cupped flowers with usually 6 tepals, red-purple outside, pink within

'Susan' is an upright medium-sized deciduous shrub with deep reddish-purple buds opening in mid spring to fragrant, cupped flowers with usually 6 tepals, red-purple outside, pink within.

One of the ancestors of the cultivated apple (of which there are more than 6,000 varieties), it can live to up to 100 years. Mature trees grow to around 10m in height. They have an irregular, rounded shape and a wide, spreading canopy. With greyish brown, flecked bark, trees can become quite gnarled and twisted, especially when exposed, and the twigs often develop spines. This 'crabbed' appearance may have influenced its common name, 'crab apple'. The crab apple is one of the few host trees to the parasitic mistletoe, Viscum album, and trees are often covered in lichens.

'Red Robin' is a dense medium-sized evergreen shrub of erect habit, with glossy, elliptic leaves to 10cm in length, bright red when young, later dark green. Flowers creamy-white, rather sparse.

'Globosa' is a slow-growing conifer making a dense, spreading evergreen small shrub with rigid, blue-grey needles