New Trees

"Because they are the backbone of garden design. It wouldn’t be a garden without trees or shrubs – or at least a garden of any importance, because herbaceous plants are here one day and gone the other. They have a short life and they mutate. The design you achieve with herbaceous plants has to be continuously looked after, nurtured and changed, whereas trees are the backbone of a garden. I am also interested in trees because I collect them. I have an arboretum, and I have been involved in trees and shrubs for many, many years. I think that in garden design they really are the most important thing. This book talks about trees which are new to cultivation, which is extraordinary. It is also about the people who travel to find out about these new trees."