Plants to remind us of those we care about | In Fiona's Garden

The hills catch the fading sunlight, frogs croak in the dam and best of all, individual plants somehow stand out more distinctly in the evening light, arousing memories and associations that are so much part of gardening.

Algerian iris (I. unguicularis, formerly I. stylosa) 'Mary Barnard'' is a lovely front row plant and its scent will fill a room if you pick the flowers in bud.

Bill's mother gave me my first clump of pale mauve I. unguicularis when she saw I loved gardening. You need something in common with your ma-in-law girls, it's remarkable how it smooths an otherwise potentially rocky road.

Near the irises, my wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) is thickly covered in blossom. Praecox means early and in its Chinese home wintersweet flowers before Christmas; I think mine flowers later because it's shaded by a crab apple.

It reminds me of my mum, who like Bill's was a keen gardener. She loved wintersweet for its scent, which is one of the strongest in the winter garden and almost overpowering in the house.

Like winter iris it's a tough, hardy plant, well adapted to a dry garden though as with so many drought-hardy plants, often blooms more prolifically after a wet summer.

Mum's other favourite shrub was also a mid-winter bloomer, the star magnolia, M. stellata. Unlike the cup-shaped flowers of most magnolias, M. stellata's blooms have 12 to 18 narrow, widespread petals, slightly recurving and faintly scented. Several forms are available, some with pink flowers.

I'd love an evergreen Viburnum davidii that bears turquoise blue winter berries to remind me of my dad, another David.

A low, spreading, shrub that makes a good ground cover, you need to plant several together to ensure cross pollination.

Mind you I'm not sure that Dad, who was an atheist and a humanist, would have appreciated the association with the man for whom V. davidii was named: Pere Armand David was a Catholic priest and served as a missionary in China.

Though I think Dad would have admired Armand David for his other qualities. He was a botanist and zoologist, a true intellectual but also an energetic and dedicated collector.

During his years in China he discovered hundreds of new plants, including rhododendrons, primulas and gentians, as well as birds, animals and fish. Many species are named after him, including Pere David's deer, a native Chinese species.

I have a slight connection with Armand David, as descendants of his deer live in Knole Park in Kent, near where I grew up. The park was (and is) open to the public free of charge all year and herds of deer were a familiar sight.

Victoria Sackville-West, poet and creator of Sissinghurst garden grew up at Knole. My bright yellow winter jasmine (J. nudiflorum), flowering now, always reminds me of her poem The Land:

"And bare gold jasmine on the wall, and violets, and soon the small blue netted iris, like a cry, startling the sloth of February."

Winter has many rewards for a gardener.