Help with choosing plants please

Thanks Whiff. We may be neighbours.

My hebe turns a dark purple during the winter months . I have a dog wood so have lovely red branches during the winter. Also have a twisted Hazel when the leaves have gone have dark brown twisted branches all winter. Woody herbs look good all year round so does creeping Phlox .heucheras and lavender look good all year round. I live in the north west of England near the sea.

Thank you all so much. I’m off to Mr Google now.

All 3 of my hebe’s died after the bitter cold december last year,shame as they are one of my favourite plants. We live in south west England.

If the garden is not too sunny, I'd go for heucheras too. You can get so many lovely variations of leaf colour and some have very pretty flowers - not huge but delicate in shades of white, coral and red.

If it is very sunny, how about lavenders? There are compact varieties that won't grow too leggy as long as you look after them.

Both heucheras and lavender are easy to take cuttings from, so even if you started with a few you would soon fill the space.

Hebes come in a wide variety of sizes, shades of flowers and leaves. Most are evergreen and are usually very hardy.

These low growing plants are loved by bees and are useful for edging:

Teucrium chamaedrys (evergreen, mauve/pink flowers)

Calamintha nepeta Marvelette Blue (semi evergreen, blue flowers)

...

Then there are many different winter flowering heathers.

I've seen variegated ivies allowed to grow horizontally

Me too, and they are drought tolerant. Not cheap but I think they’re worth it for colour all year. They do well in containers too.

I am a fan of Heucheras. They are evergreen and come in a huge range of coloured foliage and flowers.

My DH planted a couple of hollies when we moved here. Both variegated varieties a male and a female bush so that one has berries. Good for year round interest, and fairly slow growing.