Come into the cold

By Dan Pearson 13:28 25 Nov 2023, updated 13:28 25 Nov 2023

Stripped of high-summer foliage, Britain’s finest gardens assume a stark beauty in winter

In the snowy grounds of a Hampshire mansion, a statue of Pan plays pipes in an ornamental pool, framed by an avenue of limes

Winter is not a season you immediately associate with the garden, but with growth slowed, and time with it, the dark months allow us the opportunity to reflect. There are moments to think, without the need to necessarily do, and time to look at the bones of the garden without the demand, and indeed the distraction, of the growing season.

In winter the clipped formality of the gardens at Gresgarth Hall, Lancashire, contrasts starkly with the rambling woodland beyond and the arboretum on the slopes of the valley

Winter is a time to consider the cycle we are part of by engaging in the gardening of a place. Though devoid of its summer cloak of vegetation, the apparent monochrome of a winter garden is anything but. Pared back, yes, but containing infinite variation and mutability.

These images capture this downtime and allow us the opportunity to go that bit deeper into the garden – to see and feel what lies beneath the surface.

Winter Gardens is published by Clearview, £70. To order a copy for £59.50 with free delivery until 10 December, go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937

Sleet strikes the lake at Gresgarth Hall, the home of celebrated garden designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd and her husband Sir Mark

Snow enhances the geometric patterns of evergreen box plants in the formal knot garden of a Tudor manor in Hampshire

Dead plants like this seed head in the grounds of Great Dixter have a beauty all of their own. The medieval house with gardens in East Sussex was completed in 1912 by Edwin Lutyens

Winter trees dusted white overhang the entrance gates to the manor