By Francine Raymond

Looking out on the winter garden, it’s the evergreens that take center stage. In my case, it’s the bay hedges, Viburnum tinus, box and ivy that are the garden’s skeleton, but recently I’ve felt my garden needs more bones – it needs conifers.

2013 has been a busy year for conifer conservation with a global reassessment of the status of the world's conifer species, a global ex situ survey of conifer collections undertaken, and ongoing practical conservation projects focused on safeguarding threatened conifers.