In case you haven’t noticed, there’s an on-again, off-again winter-spring thing happening this year. What’s more, the winter weather isn’t just wintery, it’s Antarctic. It may be March, but it has been too cold outside even for cold-hardy pansies or early bulbs.

So nice to see something decorative that won’t be destroyed by the sub-zero temps. I’ve noticed a few front urns with birch bark in the neighbourhood. It works.

Curly willow twigs or dogwood branches – the latter now come in red, green, even a lovely shade of coral – are also cold-resistant and colourful. Evergreen boughs, of course.

As the weather warms up, you can pull out the bits showing freezer burn and tuck in some pots of bulbs. A pot or few of white tulips would work with the white bark. You could replace most of the brown pine or evergreen branches with trailing variegated ivy, which also resists a nip of spring cold.

And, of course, you couldn’t go wrong with some white hyacinths to perfume the front entrance.

Once the bulbs have bloomed, pop them into the garden to ripen. Chances are, they’ll bloom for you next year. You might say, they urn their keep.