The delicately coloured flowers of this quince appear on bare stems in spring and continue blooming profusely for many weeks well after the leaves emerge. These have a red tinge when young and become shiny green.

This AGM winning camellia is a renowned and cherished hybrid within the camellia world, and its prominence is owed to a range of striking characteristics.

Step behind the noticeboard at the Thompson Road gates to see a lovely large swathe of evergreen Helleborus foetidus (stinking hellebore, or bear’s foot hellebore).

This is a small, deciduous, ornamental cherry tree, with an upright-spreading to rounded habit, and ovate, toothed, green leaves, bronze-tinted when young, orange and yellow in autumn. It blooms in flushes repeatedly from November until March.

As probably the most unusual tree in the Gardens as well as a beautiful one, it is fortuitous that Sequoia sempervirens ‘Cantab’ has such a prominent position at the top of the West Lawn, not far from the Pavilions.

Ilex aquifolium, the common holly, is native to the UK and much of Europe and has been cultivated for hundreds of years, producing a great many varieties. A number of these are most impressive and this is one notable example, Ilex aquifolium ‘Argentea Marginata’.

The scarlet river lily is a really great garden plant, giving very long lasting colour into late autumn.

Luma apiculata is an outstanding shrub with abundant white fragrant flowers, beautiful cinnamon peeling bark and all set within deep evergreen leaves.

Growing in the East Ridge and Furrow area of the Pavilions, here is one of the ginger lilies, its handsome foliage rising along the stems from stout rhizomes.

In the northwestern USA where this elegant shrub originates, it’s known by the common name ‘ocean spray’ because of the masses of exquisite panicles of tiny white flowers. These are a magnet for bees.

The Indian horse chestnut cultivar Aesculus indica ‘Sydney Pearce’ in full bloom at the head of the drive leading from the Thompson Rd entrance is a spectacular sight.

For many years the seed of this unusual annual, which can grow as a short- lived perennial, has lain dormant at the top of the Mixed Borders. Suddenly a large clump of the blue-grey fleshy foliage and drooping blue-green bracts around tubular purple flowers has reappeared.

Fortunately the frosts in late March affected only a couple of the many beautiful magnolias flowering over many weeks in various parts of the Gardens. This primitive genus, pollinated by beetles before flying insects evolved, originated in east- and south-east Asia and north and central America.  

This delightful plant puts on its show after the winter-flowering shrubs have finished and before most spring ones have started into flower. Ready to come into full bloom with a couple of warm days, Corylopsis pauciflora is an eye-catching little shrub at the steps going down to the Water Garden.

Even before its pretty flowers appear, Sparrmannia africana (African hemp) is a most attractive evergreen shrub. The large, soft, downy leaves are heart-shaped. Towards the ends of the branches clusters of up to 20 white flower buds hang from hairy stalks, revealing a puff of golden and red-purple stamens.

This twining and climbing evergreen grows vigorously in the New Zealand plantings of the Pavilions and this year has produced a couple of dense racemes of funnel shaped, pale yellow-green flowers. The story of the survival of this once extremely rare plant is extraordinary.

Of the many fine crab apples in cultivation, Malus transitoria is arguably the most beautiful. A wide spreading little tree, often as wide as it is high, its delicate, deeply lobed leaves become gold with pink and russet tints in autumn. In spring, the tree is a mass of tiny star-shaped white flowers, truly an arresting sight. These develop into small, rich yellow, round fruits which persist after leaf fall into early winter, hanging in profusion from every branch and twig.

Of the millions of people who have lived at some time in a home with a Swiss cheese plant (Monstera deliciosa), very few will have seen one produce fruit. This is rare indoors. Now is your chance, for the magnificent mature specimen in the Pavilions has started to fruit.