I love my country garden in the city

THE 43-year-old actress is best known for her role as Dr Nikki Alexander in BBC’s Silent Witness. Her mother is actress Joanna David and her father actor Edward Fox. Emilia lives with her seven-year-old daughter Rose in West London. She is the face of AXA PPP healthcare’s Own Your Fears campaign.

HOW I GOT THE BUG

My parents are great sources of inspiration. My mum is incredibly green-fingered. In the family house in London they had no outside space but she made a garden out of pot plants on the roof, the little balcony and window sills at the front. So even though I grew up in London I had a love of gardening from an early age. Their Dorset garden is full of primroses and cowslips in spring and in summer it’s like walking into a painting of wild flowers.

When my little girl grows her own sunflowers and daisies and poppies, the joy she gets gives me a lot of joy too.

MY GARDEN LOOK IS…

An English country cottage garden in London. I’m a trialand-error gardener but roses survive in my garden because it gets lots of sun. The results are so satisfying: gardening is therapeutic: because it is physical and outside it’s mentally calming.

HERO PLANT

The Natasha Richardson rose is an old-fashioned, beautiful light pink rose and it just blooms and blooms. Roses are my great passion. I wanted the sort of garden where you walk out and it smells delicious, whether it’s roses, lavender or herbs.

BIGGEST CHORE

Taking dandelion roots out of the grass.

FAVOURITE PUBLIC GARDEN

Chelsea Physic Garden.