Romantic flowers

Lush and secluded seating areas are do ed around the garden

The lawn snakes around borders filled with a collection of roses, sweet peas and clematis abroad. When we visited Coto Doñana National Park in Spain we saw beautiful umbrella pines, so we got one for the garden and it’s now huge! These trips gave us the idea for a tropical theme; our holidays have always been adventurous.”

Other plants acquired closer to home have provided their own form of horticultural entertainment.

“In 1997 we went to Scotland and bought a monkey puzzle tree for a pound. It was tiny, just a spiky piece of twig about four inches long, but we planted it and it grew and grew,” says Linda. “Then it produced seed heads, which exploded, and then it died. Which