The festive season is in full swing, and though it's cold outside in the parks and gardens there are still plants that bring joy to our hearts -- few more so than the nanten (Nandinia domestica) with their profusion of attractive bright-red berries at this time of year.

Nanten, whose native range extends through China across to India, can be found growing in Shikoku and Kyushu, and in mountain valleys in warmer parts of Honshu westward from Ibaraki Prefecture -- where they are believed to be garden escapees whose seeds were dispersed by birds that love to eat the berries. However, in Kawakami-mura, Yamaguchi Prefecture, there is a nanten bush that is not only native, but has been designated as a national monument.

Nanten belongs to the Barberry family (megi ka; Berberidaceae), which is confined to the Northern Hemisphere. In Japan, the seven genera that occur naturally are all easy to grow in semi-shade or full sun, as long as the soil is moist and humus-rich. Once established in a garden or in pots on a balcony, the bushes require little or no attention, although they are generally slow-growing. The foliage is beautiful, changing from the new spring foliage's purplish color to green as the season progresses, and then nice shades of red in autumn. Old branches can be removed completely on plants that have grown too big.

Leaves are compound and tripinnate, grouped near the top of the stems, and complete compound leaves are triangular in shape and about 90 cm long. A close look at the individual leaflets reveals each one to be 3 to 7 cm long and narrow-ovate to broad-lanceolate with pointed tips. The margins of the tough, hairless leaflets have no teeth, and the upper surfaces are shiny.

The nanten's white flowers are borne in terminal panicles up to 40 cm tall, each containing many small flowers that bloom between May and June with six golden male stamens in the center. The oval berries 5-6 mm in diameter ripen between October and November, and fruiting branches are sold in flower shops before the New Year and used to decorate the home and altar.

Those plants bearing whitish-yellow fruits are known as shirome-nanten (N. domestica var. leucocarpa), while some cultivars are used for bonsai cultivation and others, especially in North America, are often selected to be grown for their nice autumn color.

In Japan, a dwarf nanten cultivar that reaches to only around 30 cm is known as otafukunanten (N. domestica otafukunanten), as its leaves are slightly swollen (otafuku). Though it doesn't produce fruit, as the foliage turns vivid red in autumn this nanten is often planted around house entrances.

Interestingly, the scientific name Nandinia is a Latinized form of the Japanese vernacular name. In English, however, the same evergreen or semi-evergreen is known as sacred bamboo or heavenly bamboo -- names derived from the slender stems and the fact that mature plants are normally multistemmed and somewhat resemble bamboos.

Meanwhile, in this season, decorating houses with holly wreaths is becoming popular in Japan, just as it is in Britain and North America. However, the tradition is thought to date back to the Roman festival of Saturnalia, held around Dec. 17 with feasting and revelry to honor the god and celebrate the winter solstice. It is believed that for this festival the Romans were also the first people to exchange gifts decorated with holly branches, and that Christians adopted the custom for their Christmas celebrations, coming a week after Saturnalia.

In Japan there are no fewer than 23 species of holly, with a number of native ones commonly cultivated by gardeners both here and in the West. The most commonly planted hollies in Japan are evergreens, often used as screening plants and, just like nanten, they all like humus-rich soil.

However, one of my favorite holly trees here is kurogane mochi ( Ilex rotunda), for which there is no common name, although "round-leaf holly" would be appropriate. The Japanese vernacular is derived from a combination of the purple (kurogane) leaf stalks and purplish young branches and the tori-mochi (bird lime) that used to be obtained from the fermented inner bark.

As this name-suggestion indicates, the round-leafed holly has no teeth on the edge of its leaves, which are dark green, oblong and about 6-10 cm long. Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants, with the latter bearing bright-red fruits 6-11 cm in diameter, technically known as drupes, in November and December. This holly, which grows in Kanto and westward to Honshu, Okinawa, Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula, can grow into trees 10 meters high, with occasional specimens double that height. The bark on the round-leafed holly is smooth and light whitish-gray, making a nice contrast with the dark-green leaves.

Another popular evergreen holly is mochi-no-ki (I. Integra), a Japanese native found growing close to the westward coast through Honshu from Miyagi Prefecture. Trees normally reach 6-10 meters, but 30-meter specimens can occasionally be found. Like the round-leafed holly, its ovate leaves have no teeth and its berries are red and ripen in November and December. Holly-tree wood is hard, and the fine-grained timber from mochi-no-ki is often used to make combs and the handles for wooden seals.

Whether in the garden or a balcony garden, why not complement a fine evergreen show of nanten and holly, with their bright seasonal berries, with sazanqua or Camellia sasanqua. Sazanqua flowers from the end of October through to the end of December, which is earlier than camellia (tsubaki; C. japonica), that don't bloom until mid-March. Sazanuqa plants like to grow in full sun and, like nanten, are also easy to cultivate in large pots or containers. Flowers range from white to shades of pink, although among the numerous cultivars some have double flowers and others, like kan-tsubaki, are low-growing.

Happy gardening -- and a Happy New Year.