Gardens in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire

There's something wonderfully wistful about a winter garden. Sleeping flower beds are sculptural with bare stalks and seed heads, but there are flashes of colour around garden edges with evergreens and winter berries. Soon the winter flowers emerge with fragile-looking snowdrops shivering on sheltered slopes and elegant hellebores in shady nooks. In Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, Cliveden's Water Garden is a wonderful winter visit with delicious daphne scenting the air and the dramatic white trunks of the Himalayan silver birch contrasting with the black soil and bright yellow aconites. If you look at Hughenden's parterre from the top of the terrace you can see snowflake and fir tree shapes in the planting. Greys Court's sheltered garden rooms are lovely for a quick winter stroll. Make the most of clear, frosty days with a visit to a peaceful garden.