The NGS replies

IAM replying to the column by my old friend Leslie Geddes-brown (Spectator, May 10), about the National Garden Scheme of which I am Chief Executive.

I have been a journalist for 40 years. Because I write about gardens, for many years, I have compared friends to plants—it is uncannily accurate. Leslie has always been a berberis; ‘some seasonal colour but generally very prickly’.

In my journalistic training I was told ‘always check your facts’. Leslie obviously did not get a similar training! From saying we do not allow gardens to show they are open by appointment (we do), to suggesting that asking for receipts from other charities is new (it is not), her column is littered with unchecked factual errors.

She is entitled to her doleful opinion on our new branding (although she is in a small minority), but she should know it was introduced because far from being ‘nationally known’, 2% of the public know who we are. One person’s bossiness is another’s efficiency, but being gratuitously rude about my tiny team is ungracious. I have 10 people to look after 3,500 gardens and 350 volunteers; to condemn us with the National Trust (5,000plus employees) and the RSPCA (1,500-plus employees) is damnation by association. This and the rudeness are more tabloid press than COUNTRY LIFE. George Plumptre, London