The cold weather and short, dark days have rather cramped UKNB's style of late. Sorry about that!

Above is a Sedum plant, creeping across the ground and catching the frost as per most things in the garden. Some days have seen even the tops of tree white with frost. But that begs a question: how do some plants survive the icy onslaught whilst others quickly whither and die? The answer is (in its very simplest form) by making sure that the water within themselves contains various other compounds that stop it freezing into ice crystals within the plant. See the rather more in depth description on the HowPlantsWork blog if you're interested in the details.