I often decide upon my plant of the month after a moment of inspiration walking round a garden.

As the first day of March approached, blizzards swept the country and the temperature plummeted. I went on a walk locally to take in the wintery scene. The light was beautiful, but there was little to see that spoke of spring and I approached home ready for the warmth of indoors.

It was then that I spotted a flash of red against the snow on top of the wall. A few blooms of my Chaenomeles x superba ‘Crimson and Gold’ were braving the weather and looked stunning against the white backdrop.

This was one of the first shrubs I planted when we moved in. A memory of childhood in many ways. I knew an elderly lady who used to make Japonica jelly and often gave me a slice of buttered bread spread with this delicious preserve. The lumpy, golden fruits of this shrub ripen in late autumn and, even if you can’t be bothered to make the jelly, they are beautifully perfumed and worth bringing indoors to place in a bowl where you can enjoy their scent.

The Japanese quince is not a true quince (which is the genus Cydonia) but has smaller fruit that can be used in a similar way. A true quince is more tree-like in stature and Chaenomeles are twiggy, slightly thorny shrubs that can be free standing or trained as wall shrubs. They are easy to grow in a wide range of soils and situations, even in shade. The flowers can be pink, red, orange or white. They are deciduous and the flowers bloom on bare stems in early spring. “Crimson and Gold’ has saucer-shaped, deep crimson flowers with golden stamens. It has been in cultivation since 1939 and has an RHS award of garden merit. A tough, obliging shrub that has withstood the test of time and brightens the bleakest of days.