Who am I?

Even experienced gardeners need supervision at times!

In 2026 I will have worked in horticulture for 40 years since leaving school which seems incredible, impossible but true. I grew up in a family of home gardeners, so I learnt the value and good taste of home grown food from an early age and making the space around the home look good. My earliest memories are of eating peas in my Uncle's garden at Innerwick in East Lothian, or picking raspberries with my Granny in Dunbar or going to the allotment in Leith with my grandad to pick rhubarb or sorting tatties with my Dad in the garden I grew up in at Linlithgow.

My career has been varied, covering many aspects of horticulture over the years which has given me a depth of experience and knowledge that I am now able to share with my customers and help them on their own garden journey, as beginners, or if their garden needs a revamp or they have a tricky conditions to work with and everything in between. 

I started off in my horti career at Conifox nursery near Kirkliston, working in the easter holidays and then summer holidays when I left school back in 1986. This was an in at the deep end introduction to work and horticulture as a shy teenager in a very male based industry at the time. The stories I might write in a book one day of knackered old potting machines, slugs and berberis thorns, learning to row up thousands of potted plants in all weathers, but they do say if it doesn't break you it makes you. 

In the August of that year I started a year long placement, training with the National Trust for Scotland at Inveresk Gardens. At that point you had to do a years practical work before going to college and I was lucky to end up at Inveresk. This did mean I had to walk a mile to Linlithgow train station, where I lived at home, the train to Edinburgh, a walk to Edinburgh bus station, the bus to Mussleburgh and then a mile walk to Inveresk gardens and then all in reverse to go home in the afternoon! It was a fantastic garden to start my training in though and worth the journey and the gardener Dave, was great to work with. This is where my plant name and plant ID learning began, latin and common names. Where I learnt how difficult it is to control a 36 inch wide petrol ransome mower as a slight, not that strong yet teenager, terrified of it getting away and mowing through a flower bed! Some of the plants I met in Inveresk I still have, the great great, great grand plants of in my own garden (Rosa 'Blance de Coubert'), for instance, how amazing is that. Many of my favourite and must have plants I first came across in Inveresk and when I smell Philadelphus flowers it takes me right back to Inveresk as a sixteen year old, those wonderful mid 80's teenager years where everything was new and exciting and the music fantastic. I also met Fiona who works with us at Quercus on the NTS YTS scheme at one of the two week stints at Crathes gardens. A long friendship across the years and she has been a great help right from the very first day at Quercus. 

Graduation day at the end of my year on the NTS YTS

A year later saw me starting Threave School of Gardening near Castle Douglas, this 2 year course resulted in a Diploma in Horticulture and various other qualifications including the RHS Certificate in Horticulture. Back then the course was for two years, mainly working in the gardens with two mornings in the classroom doing theory. As an eighteen year old you never contemplate far into the future and that the trees you planted as a student in the mid eighties will grow and you will visit them decades later and see them fully grown. I've visited Threave a few times over the decades but more often lately with visits in 2014, 2016, twice in 2024 and in 2025. The later two were for two reunions, where I met some of my fellow students I hadn't seen for 36 years, which was incredible and then again some of us got together again at Threave for the 65th Anniverary of Threave School of gardening an amazing day in the company of life long friends.

Working in the walled garden at Threave, when the summers were long and warm,
we were young and had much to learn

A long long time ago, graduating from Threave School of Gardening in 1989

2024 Threave reunion - in the pub, some things don't change!

2025 reunion, 65 years of Threave School of Gardening

After leaving college I worked with Dougal Philip in his original garden centre in the old walled gardens on the Hopetoun estate. Here I worked in the gardens and garden centre gaining much experience in retail horticulture and helping customers. It was a great starting point for working but I missed the garden side of horticulture so in 1991 I moved to the Murrel.

This is a 14 acre private estate near Aberdour in Fife with a woodland gardens, water gardens, rose gardens, a walled garden, rockery and vegetable garden ranged around a house designed by a student of Edward Lutyens in his style. It was a fantastic experience covering many aspects of horticulture including propagating plants to sell at the open days through the year. I started as assistant gardener and  became head gardener a year later when the original head gardener left. I had visited the gardens with my parents on an open day and fell in love with it. The plantings were diverse and cleverly planted, so many plants I'd never seen before and so I wrote to the owner asking if they had any jobs. I was asked for an interview and ended up working there for two years until I was expecting my eldest son Ben. I added to my must have and favourite plant list which became extensive as I came across many new to me plants. Again I still have some of the grand.......children of plants I got here, mainly Abutilon 'Ashford Red'.

Working in the Rhododendron beds in the Murrel, 1992

After a short break to have my eldest son I became head gardener at Annet House museum in Linlithgow where I worked for 7 years. I was given the remit of designing the gardens to reflect plants and gardening in Scotland from the 1500’s onwards. This was a great combination of my interest in Scottish history with plants and gardens, developing fruit beds, herb and vegetable potagers, a cutting garden and writing a small book on the garden and it’s plants. The gardens had been hard landscaped and with minimal planting when the museum was created in the adjoining house. So it was very exciting to create borders, potagers, fruit borders, build compost heaps, research the plants, find the plants to buy and then place them in the gardens. I was able to expand on my love of herbs here and learn much more about plants and their uses, grow fruit and interpret the plants for customers. 

I've been published! Excuse the very short hair, about 1996

For a time I worked a morning or two at Annet House and a morning or two at Binny Plants. I could fit this in while the kids were at nursery and school. After a year or two I left Annet House, I felt I had done as much as I could, and increasingly the committee were being problematic so I started doing more hours at Binny Plants. Here I was potting, weeding and doing nursery work while my children were young. Over the years I increased my hours, as the kids grew, eventually to full time. I became head gardener running the gardens and with responsibilities in helping run the nursery and working on show stands, propagation, getting mail orders ready to be packaged and helping customers. I learned a lot over the twelve years I worked at Binny, made good friends and its the place I have worked the longest, so far.......

Winning best in show at Gardening Scotland

 I worked there for 12 years until November 2014 when I decided it was time for a change. I made decision to take a year out and see where I wanted go and what I wanted to do in life, even if I wanted to stay in horticulture! But as is the way, I was destined to stay in horticulture, even if I thought I was done with it and this, it turned out was Quercus Garden Plants! The rest as they say is history. 

Successful nursery owner, who'd have thought

Promoting independent woman led businesses

Its not all hard work, we try to have fun too

We do a lot to recycle and re-use too

Being interviewed at the garden show in 2025

For someone who was told they wouldn't achieve much I think I've done no bad at all. I am so proud of what I have achieved with Quercus Garden Plants, turning it from rows of mainly dead plants, an office building and an acre of wild grass and terraces to the inspiring gardens you can walk around now. The huge range of plants grown here on site and the knowledgeable staff, our informative website and busy social media. In 2025 we celebrated 10 years of Quercus, expanded the business by building four new polytunnels and increasing staff hours, our customer count was up significantly as more people find out about us and what we are doing, selling tough hardy plants grown on site. The feed back we get is fantastic, people love what we do, they love visiting the gardens, enjoying the peaceful place we have created and then being able to buy the plants they see growing. The wildlife haven we have nurtured, being peat free, recycling, being creative on a budget and just being a nice place to visit. We are so much more than a plant selling business. We have provided a place for people in need of peace and somewhere to sit in quiet contemplation, somewhere they could buy that unusual plant they couldn't get anywhere else, some where to chat and get great information from the Quercus team, we have created a community and that is a great and valuable thing in this often noisy, sad, chaotic modern world. It would not have been possible without our lovely customers, David my husband, Fiona and Isabel who not just work with me (and put up with me) but are valuable friends too and our volunteers.

David with our first jack russell Bracken

and with our current nursery dog Maisie

Fiona and I working on propagation

Fiona, Isabe and I on one of our charity days

Isabel and one of this years volunteers Shannon

Isabel doing cuttings

Me in our original polytunnel