Private passion

For more than 50 years, Maurice Foster has been amassing a collection of woody plants in his garden at White House Farm, which has grown into a precious horticultural resource

- PAULA MCWATERS

To stroll around Maurice Foster’s undulating hillside garden in Kent in springtime is to take a lesson not only in botany and horticulture but also in geography. Prize magnolias, rhododendrons and camellias flower at every turn of the grassy paths and this master plantsman can tell you a tale about any one of them. In the 52 years that he has been assembling his unrivalled collection of woody plants, Maurice has travelled widely on plant-hunting expeditions to remote areas of western China, northern Pakistan, Bhutan, Mongolia, Japan, Tasmania and Aotearoa New Zealand, and many details of these trips are fresh in his mind as he describes the provenance of particular specimens.

White House Farm lies east of Sevenoaks, on a broad ridge about 150 metres above sea level. “Wind is the enemy of woody plants,” says Maurice. “So one of the first things I did was to put in a shelter belt. I’m fond of saying that there is nothing between us and the Urals except for Margate Pier and a few telegraph poles, and they’re not very good protection.” From its unassuming driveway, there is little indication of the horticultural treasures that lie beyond.