Little by little the days are starting to get longer, though with spring still a long way off this is a good time to do some armchair gardening. Whether you browse through gardening books or magazines, or search the Internet for your reading material, without stirring from your armchair there's plenty of opportunity now to be planning your planting and pruning for another year.

But not all plant life outdoors is dormant at this season. Though most parts of the country are chilly, and some are under a carpet of snow, those of you living in milder areas can enjoy the delicious fragrance of wintersweet. This is a wonderful winter-flowering deciduous shrub that should be a feature of every garden. It also grows successfully in a large pot or container. Wintersweet's 2-cm-wide yellow flowers are highly fragrant and borne on bare branches -- though if the autumn was mild, leaves will remain even when the first flowers begin to open.

Wintersweet belongs to the Calycanthaceae family and its botanical name, Chimonanthus preacox, derives from the Greek words cheimon (winter) and anthos (flower). However, both the vernacular English and Japanese names are interesting, too. The former is almost self-explanatory, as "wintersweet" refers to the sweet-smelling flowers borne during winter. In Japanese, however, it is known as robai, with ro ("wax") alluding to the texture of the petals, and bai being the Chinese reading of the kanji for ume ("Japanese apricot").

Wintersweet is a Chinese plant that was introduced to Japan from the Korean Peninsula during the reign of Emperor Gomizunoo (1611-29) in the early years of the Edo Period (1603-1867). Many plants were originally brought from China for medicinal purposes, and in the case of wintersweet, concoctions from its roots and stems were used to treat coughs and asthma.

Another popular cultivar is C. preacox var. grandiflorus, or To-robai. Here, To alludes to the Tang Dynasty in China, and is a frequently used prefix for Japanese names, indicating a Chinese origin, such as To-kaede (Acer buergerianum). To-robai flowers a little later than the normal wintersweet, and its blooms are also deeper yellow and larger, each being 2-3 cm across.

If you're envisioning wintersweet blooms in your garden next year, do remember that one essential prerequisite is that it must be planted in a sunny position. Also, note that during summer this will be just another bush with green leaves, so it's best planted at the back of a flowerbed, with perennials such as the Lenten rose (Helleborus orientalis) in front.

Left unpruned, the plant will attain a height of 2 to 4 meters. Flowering stems are ideal for indoor decoration. In China, the flowers, like lavender, are used to keep linen smelling fresh.

My advice is to buy a small bush, say 1 meter high. Since wintersweet likes to grow in well-drained, humus-rich soil, before planting it be sure to incorporate plenty of leaf mold. This helps to conserve soil-moisture during summer. Established plants should be given an annual fertilizer dressing such as Magamp K, made by Hyponex Japan.

Meanwhile, another plant to think about during the lazy days of winter armchair gardening is ivy, which must rank as one of the most versatile plants gardeners can choose from. Not only is it a plant for all seasons and situations, but it doesn't require much attention and is happy in a sunny, semi-shaded or full-shade positions.

Ivy's botanical name is Hedera, and it belongs to the ginseng family, or Araliaceae. Depending on which botanical authority you subscribe to, there are between four and 11 species of these evergreen climbers spread throughout Europe, North Africa and Asia. One species is believed to be native to Japan.

Ivies have two stages in their life cycle: a juvenile stage, which lasts a long time, and the adult flowering and fruiting stage. In the juvenile stage the stems produce aerial or adventitious roots, enabling the plants to cling and gain support. In this stage, too, the leaves, which are alternate, are usually three- or five-lobed, whereas adult leaves have no lobes and are arranged in a spiral on nonclimbing woody stems.

Flowers on ivies are yellowish-green borne in globular clusters, and the fruit are tiny berries, which turn black when mature. Ivy flowers are pollinated by wasps and moths, and the nutritious fruit, which ripens in winter, is an important source of food for birds in spring.

The Japanese ivy (H. rhombea) can be seen growing in woodlands around Tokyo, flourishing especially close to the sea. Commonly known as kizuta or fuyuzuta, its stems are purplish-green and, though the plant is hardier than the popular English ivy, it is absent from Hokkaido.

Aside from the Japanese ivy, others grown in Japan include the Canary Ivy (H. algeriensis) and Gloire de Marengo, a popular, fast growing cultivar with variegated silver-gray and green lobeless leaves. Interestingly, the name of this ivy is said to commemorate Napoleon's victory over the Austrian army on the plains of Marengo in northwest Italy in 1800. The Persian ivy, (H. colchica), is native to Turkey, the Caucasus and northern Iran, and among its vigorous cultivars, Dentata has the largest leaves of any ivy, being 20 x 17 cm and heart-shaped with green-purple leaf-stems. Others with attractive foliage include Dentata Variegata, whose leaves have a white margin, and Sulphur Heart, whose leaves are light-green with splashes of yellow in the center.

The common or English ivy (H. helix) is very popular in Japan, and there are more than 200 cultivars here exhibiting a wide variety of leaf shapes and plant sizes. Those with small leaves are ideal for cultivation in pots in combination with other plants to make a miniature planter.

Ivy Japan, based in Nagasaki, offers sets of six cultivars, and to order these or for further information on ivies, call them at (095) 884-1374.