Isuspect most of us are fed up with the white stuff and winter in general. But by the time you read this we will be a few days short of Candlemas – a Christian ceremony held on February 2. The significance of this day reaches back long before Christianity because this festival of light falls midway between the shortest day and the spring equinox. So in theory we should be halfway through winter and well and truly looking forward to spring.

However you feel about winter, generally it’s a good thing for the garden because it enforces a period of dormancy and retreat for plants, insects and small mammals. Top fruit like apples, pears and plums positively need this rest. They awake afresh and flower and crop more heavily. In a mild winter they often come into leaf too early and the blossom catches a late frost. So your fruit trees will be having a glorious rest.

Species tulips also need a cold snap and most spring-flowering plants and bulbs benefit too because they are held back until spring starts to arrive. This goes for snowdrops, hellebores, all woodlanders, crocus and narcissi. Most of those are needed from February onwards. In clement years (when winter seems to be missing) it can be depressing to see a prized hellebore in full flight in the November gloom – sending up etiolated flower stems of puny, washed-out muddy blooms. I for one am glad that winter arrived. For if the New Year had carried on being as clammy as November, this spring would have been a washout. After this hard weather, it will be a triumph.

Snow cover is generally good news for plants in the ground as there’s a protective blanket effect. When the snow melts, the plants underneath surge into growth and my snowdrops are much further on. Snow also protects foliage and, although this can brown and discolour after thawing, resist the urge to tidy. Wait for another five or six weeks as we are still in the lap of the gods.

We will have casualties – especially frost-tender plants that generally flower in the second half of summer. Dahlia tubers will probably go here, and I lost all mine last year. Fuchsias of the hardy kind (those that stay out all year) may also die.

The hardier salvias and bulbous plants like Eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ may also disappear. But don’t be too hasty to write them off. These plants often creep back into life from the depths of the underground in late June and July. Plants are resilient, like gardeners. The salvia S. microphylla ‘Icing Sugar’ is an exclusive of Hayloft Plants (tel 01386 554 440/ www.hayloftplants.co.uk). Its dark calices and pink-lipped purple flowers are very vivid.

It’s similar to S. x jamensis ‘Hot Lips’ in style except this one is lipstick-pink and white. Perhaps my favourite is still the purple ‘Christine Yeo’, a cross between S. chamaedryoides and S. microphylla.

It will flower from May until November. It’s never covered with flowers – it just pops up continually with a few.

Last year I also planted the pale-pink ‘Stormy Seas’.

But the salvia that takes everybody’s eye here is the blue and white Salvia candelabrum. It’s so enthusiastic it regularly trips up the postman.