A true springtime stunner, it’s not so long ago that you could find wild-service fruit at a market. These days it’s rare and hard to find but it’s still a favourite with wildlife like the wood pigeon, whose gut softens its seeds for propagation.

Bane of witches, diviner of the future and producer of jam, rowan is an elegant tree with a mystical history. Its leaves and berries are a favourite for wildlife in woods and towns alike.

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

S. pentandra is a bushy deciduous tree to 10m tall, with glossy dark green leaves to 12cm long, and 5cm long catkins in early summer, the showy males yellow, the females green.

'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.

Beautiful blossom and a bounty of bright red fruits. Wild cherry , one of the prettiest native trees, is relished by gardeners and wildlife.

'Otto Luyken' is a spreading evergreen shrub to 1m tall, with dense, low growth, and narrow, glossy dark green leaves. Flowers small, white in erect racemes; fruits cherry-like, red turning glossy black.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

'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

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.

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

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.

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