“If I was choosing a tree, the one that I would choose would be Cercidiphyllum japonicum. First of all because of the shape of the leaves which are wonderfully spaced along the stems of the plant and the twigs. It has beautifully shaped foliage and a light canopy. It has a brilliant scent when the leaves are coming out, and when the plant gets dry in the summer, it has this scent of candy floss. Then when the leaves start to turn in autumn, it again has this superb scent of burnt sugar or candy blossom. So that's a must.
“The other thing that I would have to be apples because of my upbringing. My father was always interested in apples, we had a lot of apples at home. The one apple that I think I would grow, it's not one that I necessarily love, but it's one called ‘Beauty of Bath’. That was the school bag apple, that was the apple that was ripe on the day that you went to school in August and you had it in your school bag. It's not the best apple, but that's a memory which that has.
“If I was to go for something else, maybe I would go for something like roscoea, spring flowering plants which are relatives of the ginger family.”
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“My first one is purely sentimental. It would be caraway, a herb. It's an unusual herb, it’s a bit aniseedy. The main reason is it's because it's the plant that brought my wife and I together.
"I was an apprentice at Pittmeden Garden, and I happened to be helping out working at a musical tribute night. My wife used to work in the tea room, and she came to see some of her pals. She'd heard that I was the new gardener there, so she she came over with this plant and asked if I knew what it was? I identified it as caraway, that got us talking, and here we are, married, 12 years later.
“It's the plant that got us talking so that's always a special one for me. And when we got married we themed every table with plants - the top table was caraway.
“The other one I really like in our garden is Prunus serrulata, the Kanzan or Japanese cherry. I love that because I just think it has so much bang for your buck. That gorgeous, pink blossom that you just can't even describe from May, sometimes even hanging on into early July. And then you get the summer greenery, but when we get into autumn, it starts to turn into that really fiery orange and red foliage. Then in winter, the gorgeous bark, the texture, there is something all year round.
"I always wanted a cherry tree, and my wife always wanted a cherry tree and when we moved here, they already had a cherry tree, and it was a Kanzan, so it was meant to be.
“Final plant, again, just because it happened to be here when I moved in, but I hadn't seen it before. It was a kind of lilac, a Syringa pubescens subsp. patula ‘Miss Kim’.
"The house was quite old and needed some renovating. I think it was the very first day that the bathroom was ready, and I got to use the new bath, and I thought there's just this absolutely gorgeous smell which I couldn't get. I went outside, and there it was just outside the bathroom windows, this lilac, this Syringa pubescens. And the smell was just absolutely incredible. The smell is probably one of the strongest and most beautiful scents on any flower or plant that I've come across.
“So I've gone for a sentimental one, one for looks, one for smell.”
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“My go to shrubs are euonymus which is gorgeous, as there's all different types of euonymous. I quite like the Euonymus fortunei 'Emerald Gaiety', they're great, you can stick them in a shady corner.
“Sambucus nigra 'Black Lace' has got a lovely flower, and it's got dark foliage, beautiful black, dissected foliage. It will survive anything, you can actually cut it down to ground level in January. It'll grow in sun, it’ll grow in shade, it will grow anywhere, it’s fantastic. And apparently, you can put it in your gin.
“And skimmia, the Skimmia x confusa 'Kew Green', that's my favourite. It's got beautiful, little green flowers, it smells divine, and it's got the glossiest leaves. Again, you can stick it in, and forget about it.”
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