There were even trees that seemed to have very little foliage at all, but consisted mostly of trunks with small twiggy growths at the top, covered with tiny emerald leaves and white flowers.

At the same time twiggy growth on shoots that have flowered more than once or twice can be cut to a strong, outward-growing side shoot.

The dense, twiggy growth and glabrous reddish shoots bear leaves 4-7.5 cm long, coarsely toothed and 3- to 5-lobed, superficially resembling ivy or maple leaves.

In winter, the climbing hydrangea's shaggy brown vines will crisscross the concrete walls of the old dairy, and its twiggy growth will provide more shelter for the birds.

But some plants grow as vines; some have a shrubby habit with twiggy growth.

Beneath those spreading branches, thin, twiggy growth reached out skeletal fingers like blackened bones, while the upper branches cut off most of the light, leaving the trail beneath shrouded in a twilight gloom, though it was midday.

In a large pot it will produce a dome of twiggy growth, and has the added bonus of brilliant autumn colour.

But don't be misled by lots of twiggy new growth.