Winter’s tale: Dunninald gardener David Pullar finds winter a particulary busy time as he looks after the grounds of the Stansfeld’s Angus family house.

When David Pullar, gardener at Dunninald, Edward and Mary Stansfeld’s Angus garden, is asked what he does in winter he is not short of a reply.

Winter, he explains, is one of the busiest times of the year, especially in the 18th-century walled garden. This is when beds are prepared for summer with manure dug in, and the herbaceous plants cut back and cleared with an eye to the needs of wildlife. Trees and shrubs are pruned, conifers shaped and fruit trees gently trained in the shape of fans against the unusual curved south-facing walls. Low box hedges must be repaired with some sections replaced with newly grown cuttings.

It is the time to clear scattered leaves from the drifts of yellow aconites and tidy the beds of hellebores and the ground round the bright red stems of dogwoods, willows, pink and white viburnums, sprays of yellow jasmine and early flowering primula. The generous Victorian glasshouses are cleaned, seeds sown and cuttings nurtured, and perhaps the wrought iron entrance gate, the 1906 Union Gate, might have a coat of glossy black paint.

In the 100 acres surrounding the gothic revival-style house, designed by James Gillespie Graham and built in 1824, things are equally busy. Sited a short distance from the steep cliffs that mark the Angus coast south of Montrose, the grounds are vulnerable to storm damage – 20 trees have come down this winter. The work to clear this up is ongoing, and in addition to the large trunks and branches, numerous twigs were blown over the ground and network of paths that run through the grounds. Removing these was vital for the snowdrop display.

Mary and Edward took over the daily running of the garden five years ago from Edward’s parents, John and Ros, and are now the fifth generation of the Stansfeld family to live at Dunninald. While Ros, a skilled gardener, concentrated on the walled garden and the spaces near the house, John enjoyed the management of the policies, where he favoured planting native British species. Now the roles are reversed: Mary, who stresses that she is not a gardener, works on the woodlands, while Edward and his mother combine forces with David in the walled garden. The three generations, Edward and Mary have two teenage children, Katharine and Harry, share the partially sub-divided house.

Mary explains: “This is our first time opening for the Snowdrop Festival. We have been trying to improve the snowdrops over the past two years.” The snowdrops, she adds, are mostly scattered on both sides of the mile-long walk that runs through the outlying woodlands, where you stand the best chance of seeing wildlife, including the red squirrels that thrive at Dunninald and a variety of birds that includes bullfinches, woodpeckers and the occasional long-tailed tit.

Mary has found that snowdrops can take a long time to establish. Both she and David tend to identify small areas, preferably in clean, weed-free deciduous areas, where the glowing, white bulbs would make an impact, and then transport a generous clump from another part of the garden. This is then divided into fist-sized clumps that bulk up over the years. There are, she says, many different varieties in the garden, but she has not yet learned to identify them. It is safe to assume she won’t be paying record prices for a single bulb, preferring instead the spirit-lifting impact of a snowy carpet or drift.

Close to the house, the garden has evolved in the more formal atmosphere of an early 18th-century grid pattern, where the focal point is an impressive beech avenue that leads to the house – which on open days is approached on foot along a winding drive. David, 24, who has worked at Dunninald since finishing his training, feels that winter is the best time to explore the grounds. “This is when you see the skeletons of the trees. There are some magnificent walnut trees, larch, weeping umbrella beech, Fagus sylvatica ‘pendula’, camperdown elm and cloud pruned juniper.” This, he adds, is the best time to admire the glossy bark of Acer griseum scattered sorbus or the silvery catkins of Garrya elliptica and contorted hazel - the latter two in the walled garden. Close by is the newly planted Quercus robur, associated with the legend of Robin Hood, which was a gift from Mary’s uncle.

A remarkable family garden that reflects the tastes and enthusiasm of different generations of the same family, Dunninald changes with the seasons. After the snowdrops come the daffodils followed by the carpets of bluebells, their seeds scattered over decades to spread back under the trees and around the heavily scented azaleas. For early summer, David has been working on the development of a wild flower meadow, growing plugs of wild flowers in specially prepared and impoverished squares of ground. In late June and July, when the garden is open for the month, the trees are in full leaf and the walled garden with its roses and herbaceous is a glorious sight. “Many visitors remark on the calming atmosphere of the gardens and that the walls shut out the troubles of the big world outside,” Mary says. k

Dunninald, Montrose, Angus DD10 9TD. Open days: Snowdrop Festival: Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 March, gardens only, noon-4pm. Many woodland paths have restored with hardcore and are easily accessible.

Bluebell Sunday: Sunday 13 May, gardens only, 2-5pm. House and gardens: Thursday 28 June-Sunday 29 July (closed Mondays), house 1-5pm, gardens from noon.

Admission: gardens, £3.50. House and gardens, adults £6, concs £5. Under 12s free (www.Dunninald.com)