Delightful descriptions and characterizations enliven this tale of an old-time gardener in an English countryside garden and his love of plants. With tender mentoring and the luck of winning a prize at the flower show, young Herbert becomes what he had dreamed of. This is the amusing story of an awkward orphan child with one leg a bit longer than the other who rises from unremarkable school-boy days spent picking wild-flowers and dodging angry farmers to become the legendary head gardener "Old Herbaceous," the most esteemed flower-show judge in the county and a famed horticultural wizard. Old Herbaceous traces his journey from young help to head gardener and although things have changed, the world had started with a garden (in Eden) after all, and things that old don't disappear so easily!

Sprinkled with many nuggets of gardening wisdom, this is THE classic novel of the garden and the gardener, a witty and comical portrait, with a main character as unforgettable as P. G. Wodehouse's immortal butler, Jeeves.