Just northeast of Cambridge is the unlikely setting for Anglesey Abbey.
It was the first National Trust property to make a dedicated winter walk to extend the season and has become the template for many similar seasonal plantings, offering winter colour and scent.
The shrubs are the main providers of both with the stems of cornus, tassels of Garrya Elliptica, and early flowering viburnums and mahonias delivering.
However, there’s plenty of invention before the refreshed grove of Himalayan Silver birch stems provides the walk’s finale.
The nearly 100 acres includes parkland, woodland, a lake, a stretch of the river Quy and a Jacobian house (pictured). Traditional planting classics offer: a dahlia bed organised by colour, an old-fashioned rose garden and a spectacular perennial garden set in a ‘D’ backed by a beech hedge (pictured).