THERE are still plenty of berries in gardens and hedgerows for the birds, which seem to have been singing especially loudly this week.

They have eaten the fruit that covered the stems of cotoneaster, and most of the Christmas redness of the holly has disappeared, but others have taken their place to give some brightness in the garden.

In a sheltered spot, for example, the heavenly or sacred bamboo, nandina domestica, will carry clusters of white flowers for a long period in spring, summer and autumn, especially if the weather is mild.

More will be produced in a hot summer, with an occasional plume at the beginning and end of the season. The blooms are followed by clusters of small red berries through the winter unless there is a very cold spell of weather.

Despite its common name, nandina is not a bamboo, but is a multi-stemmed evergreen shrub from the plant family of berberidaceae, which as well as nandina includes mahonia and berberis.

Nandina domesticus originates in Japan and China and can grow up to 2.4m/8ft tall with a spread of about half that.

A severe winter will cut the stems back to the ground, but new growth usually appears the following spring and will grow rapidly to fill the empty space. New leaves have a purplish tinge, which fades to green as it matures.

The form Richmond' grows 1.5-2.4m/5-8ft tall with a spread of 90-120cm/3-4ft, while the shorter form Firepower' grows 1-1.5m/3-5ft tall. This latter form has brightly coloured foliage in spring and autumn. Nana purpurea is much shorter, growing only 30-44cm/12-18ins tall with warm hued foliage in summer.

Nandinas like a sheltered spot in the garden with sun for at least part of the day to encourage spring and autumn leaf colours. The soil should be moist without becoming waterlogged in winter.

Pruning isn't essential for the health of the plant, apart from removing dead or broken stems, but a mature specimen can be thinned out if it becomes congested. Just take out a few of the oldest branches to open up the shrub.

Another shrub holding on to its berries this month in the snowberry or symphoricarpos albus. I used to have one in the front garden, but it was very invasive and threatened to take over the whole patch. Later research has shown that it is recommended for large-scale ground cover rather than domestic use.

However, if the large white berries that give rise to the popular name of the plant still appeal, there are other, less invasive hybrids to choose from.

Symphoricarpos x doorenbosii Mother of Pearl' has numerous pink flushed white berries and grows 2m/6ft tall with a similar spread. The flowers seem insignificant to the human eye, but are a magnet for bees and other pollinating insects when they open in June and July. The vigorous White Hedge is similar in height with large white berries.

Not all snowberry species have white berries.

Symphoricarpos x doorenbosii Magic Berry has fruit which seems to range from rose pink through to deep purplish pink, while S x chenaultii Hancock change according to position with a sunny spot producing deep pink berries and shade giving rise to a pale pink flushed crop.

Symphoricarpos is an easy shrub to grow in almost any position, sun or light shade, and all but the driest of soils and the densest of shade. Growth can be kept in check by removing suckers as soon as they appear and careful pruning.

Take old stems back to the base of the plant in winter and reduce the rest by half in winter. Flowers and berries the following year will not be affected as they will be carried on new growth made at the beginning of the next season.

Weekend catch-up

  • It is a good time to clean out garden sheds, mend and oil tools and sort out all the old seed packets that have been hanging around. If the seeds are still dry it is worth keeping them to sow at the time indicated on the packet.
  • Sort the packets into groups according to sowing time and keep them somewhere dry until it is time to start them off into growth.
  • Germination may be reduced if the seed is very old, but it is always worth having a go, as was shown in the programme A New Year at Kew a couple of weeks ago. Seeds collected by a Dutch sailor 200 years ago were discovered at the National Archive and were sown at Kew with three species successfully germinating.

Gardening TV and radio

Tomorrow

8am, Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors.

9am, Radio Leeds, Gardening with Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

1pm, Radio York, Nigel Harrison.

2pm, R4, Gardeners' Question Time. John Cushnie, Anne Swithinbank and Bob Flowerdew answer questions from gardeners in Surrey and Tony Russell and Peter Gibbs visit Highgrove House, where trials are being held to discover an elm tree resistant to Dutch elm disease.

Friday

8am, BBC2, A New Year At Kew. It's early summer at the Royal Botanic Gardens and volunteers are sorting out the beds and borders.

8.30pm, BBC2, Grow Your Own Veg. In the penultimate programme of this charming series, Carol Klein turns her attention to leeks and onions and shows how to grow salad leaves without a garden.