The witch hazel flowers, those marmalade concoctions of yellow, orange or red ribbons that appear in winter, have partly opened and then stopped in freeze-frame. They look hunched up with cold and I feel a little the same, caught in a winter no-man’s-land. As I write, it’s cold, wet and gloomy, and there is not much happening outdoors. These are trying times for gardeners, who are keen to sense spring and new growth.

I feel the frustration keenly. However, I have learnt how to deal with it over the years. A few springs of early flowers in a posy vase help no end. It may be the pale-green winter-flowering currant (Rubus laurifolium ‘Mrs Amy Doncaster’) a brittle lady likely to snap in the wind. I’ve tucked her up behind an oil tank. Sorry Amy.

Or it may be wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) and I now know that I should have planted ‘Grandiflorus’: it’s much more prolific on the flower front. I may cut a few stems of Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ if it has been mild enough. The winter-flowering cherry Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’ is another candidate for snipping for the kitchen table. Picked in tight bud they will all open in warmth lifting the spirits of the gloomy gardener.

However, my chief solace at this time of year is the indoor hyacinth. Plant in early September (with its nose sticking out of the compost) and keep cool and dark for ten weeks in the shed. Bring them in around Christmas and place some in porches and others in rooms. Then they flower in sequence over January and February. You must use specially prepared bulbs for indoor use. The theory is that if they are planted at the end of August they will flower in time for Christmas. I never manage this, but then I prefer to be cheered up after the festivities. The British, incidentally, buy many more hyacinth bulbs than anyone else.

I’m not a great fan of most hyacinths in the garden setting, although they do do well here. Somehow these single-stemmed hyacinths stand out like a sore thumb. Time reduces their impact and produces subtler, slimmer flowers, as it does with tulips. The best for gardens are the multiflora types that produce lots of smaller flower heads.

Indoor hyacinths produce scent in a warm room particularly the blues. There’s a hint of spice and none of that sickly over-sweetness associated with Paperweight narcissi. Good award-winning varieties include the silvered fuschia-pink ‘Anna Marie’, the very reflexed ‘Blue Jacket’ and the softer lilac-tinted ‘Delft Blue’. ‘Jan Bos’ is a strident spirea-red and ‘Miss Saigon’, a lilac pink. ‘Woodstock’ is almost beetroot-red. With all this colour it’s easy to overlook the purity of white flowers. ‘L’Innocence’ is lovely. I always intend to find pussy willow and moss to accompany these winter treasures, but rarely do!