NCCPG

Would plant conservation, now so topical, benefit if writers like Farrer with a fine turn of phrase expressed their abhorrence of uprooting plants so forcefully?

As a consequence of this disease we are sterilising all our hedge cutting equipment after each operation. We are also not exporting box from our estate or buying any in. Previously when we brought plants in they were quarantined for at least six months before planting but due to the serious issue of the National Collection we are not buying any for the foreseeable future.

It was an absolutely thrilling moment to find out that we had been awarded the medal I have only ever dreamt of receiving. Obviously the judges approved of our display of alpine campanulas in the NCCPG Plant Heritage Marquee, as did the moderators (I can't resist name-dropping here - including Roy Lancaster VMH), who can sway the judges' vote. But what exactly did Simon (my husband) and I do right this year?

In l946 the house was nigh derelict; windows blown out, Nissen huts all over the place and the army in occupation, so the garden is a post-World War Two creation. Mrs. Foster senior died in l986. It is a large farming estate. The house dates from 1630 and l840 and early C19 which is now demolished.

'Fat Hen' used to be called 'melde' from which the place name Milden (a village near Lavenham) is derived. The unusual village sign is a metal representation of the plant and even gets a mention in Richard Mabey's wonderful book Flora Brittanica. Fat hen was formerly cultivated as a green vegetable and the seeds were at one time ground into flour.

Peat is not a renewable resource as it is formed over a very long period of time by the decomposition of bog plants and mosses. This continued requirement for peat by horticulturalists has resulted in the disappearance of 94% of Britain's lowland peat bogs and 2,250 archaeological wetland sites have been damaged.

Hammond, shoemaker of Coddenham, was a leading light in the florists group. Extraordinarily the notebook in which he listed and drew the varieties of carnation which he cultivated has survived. It is bound in red morocco and the title page was printed specially by John Bagnall in 1733 and is adorned with Hammond's own sketch of a carnation Princess Amelia.

For me, Rosemary is the queen of herbs, with a prodigious history cast all over the world, and it is the shrub which I would not be without. Wherever I have lived I have always grown a shrub of 'the good old-fashioned rosemary'.

I well remember, before main-drainage became almost universal after the Second World War, all the local cottage gardens were full of Madonna lilies - a lovely sight. A famous lily breeder Oliver Wyatt told me that this was because they were so well nourished and watered by what was tipped out of the cottage windows!.

Any National Collection needs to develop, and with such a rich and fascinating history our aim is to perfect production so Malmaisons will once again become a popular and elegant cut flower.

The rabbits in my garden are multiplying faster than ever, and the deer and muntjac invade it in the early morning. They eat the new shoots on the roses and shrubs, and the deer attack young trees. They particularly like conifers, perhaps because the bark has a gummy taste.

This member of the otherwise largely tropical family Sapindaceae is native to northern China, and has proved remarkably hardy in Britain

And for fear of flying fowl and birds, cast thorns very thick upon your beds; and, if they be sown in the increase of the moon in February, for to have them the sooner to grow, yea though it be in March, yet spread upon the thorns straw, and such as is bright, and let it be thick, that so it may the better defend them from the danger of the frosts;

Into June, come the large range of martagon lilies with small turkscap flowers from white through to almost black in the case of one called L. m. 'The Moor'. These and their hybrids are easy-going and will tolerate shade. L. 'Mrs R O Backhouse' and L. 'Marhan' are robust varieties and clumps last for many years.

East Anglia is not an easy climate for plants. Newcomers to East Anglia are taken aback by its bleak winter climate and dry summers. They are surprised to learn that this is the norm, rather than a recent phenomenon. East Anglia has a climate that is as dry as parts of California. Add to this the cold east wind of spring and its scorching summers, and you have a severe test for garden plants. By way of example, It comes as no surprise to East Anglians to hear that sandstorms in 1668 overwhelmed Santon Downham and covered 1000 acres. We have a testing climate.

These roses possess such a good range of flower colour and form, and are generally of a size particularly suited to today's small gardens, it seems a shame that they are not more widely grown. Some of them tend to sucker, it is true, but set against their other virtues, including a remarkable freedom from disease, that seems a price well worth paying.

Another china rose giving excellent value is R. 'Mutabilis'. It prefers to grow in a reasonably sheltered spot.The single flowers are a mixture of pale yellow, orange and red which probably accounts for its name. R. 'Mutabilis', which is relatively thornless, grows about five foot. It needs judicious pruning because it makes quite a lot of dead wood as it ages, and it responds to gentle care and light pruning to keep the bush open and in good shape. She is not scented but associates veiy well with Lonicera 'Belgica' which is highly scented and the colours of the honeysuckle echo the shadings of the rose most pleasingly. R. 'Mutabilis' flowers continuously all summer, and is a most elegant unique rose.

Although there is wide disagreement about shrubby mimulus, one thing is consistent - they will not tolerate wet, especially in the winter, so I advise growing them either in the rain-shadow of a wall or in a well-crocked container. Aspect seems immaterial, indeed two containers outside my North-facing front door have survived for several years and flower quite reasonably.