THOUSANDS of tourists flock to the Redwood National Park in northern California each year, where they admire the ancient redwood trees, some of which tower 100m (328ft) above the ground. Most visitors are quite content to return home with a postcard or a snow globe as a memento. But not Edwin Rye. He stopped at a gift shop and bought a living, although miniature, redwood to remind him of the trip.

"Somebody in the future is going to curse me," he jokes. "When I bought this, it was a 10cm (4in) plant growing in a test tube."

However, it is thriving in his chalky soil and in just over four years has grown to around 2m (62'3ft) tall. At this rate it will soon be competing with the other giant trees that dominate its native homeland.

Edwin is a man who simply can't resist buying a plant he admires. His 13m x 8m (46ft x 26ft) garden, in the pretty town of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, is testimony to his plant addiction. Every inch of border is covered with foliage or flowers. Many of the plants, like the redwood, have been collected on his holidays abroad, to places such as New Zealand, South Africa and the USA. These plants have been woven together with masses of perennials, bulbs and shrubs, using a great deal of skill, to create beds burgeoning with colour, especially during the summer and autumn.

Edwin's gardening prowess has recently been recognised in the BBC Gardener of the Year competition. After sailing through the first rounds, which tested his horticultural knowledge and evaluated his garden, he reached the finals, held at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Glasshouses. The show garden he built there, named Moonlight, landed him the coveted title after being judged the best by experts Joe Swift, Rachel de Thame and Adam Pasco, editor of BBC Gardeners' World Magazine.

However, 31 years ago his Wendover garden would have caught the judges' eyes for all the wrong reasons. Edwin and his wife Pamela had moved into the house, finding a garden full of stinging nettles and builders' rubble. After managing to tame the weeds, Edwin built a low-maintenance garden that suited his busy lifestyle. At the time, he was the owner of three fruit and vegetable shops in and around nearby Aylesbury, and worked a gruelling six-day week. However, since retiring a few years ago, he has allowed his imagination to run riot and has created a "cottage garden with masses of things that I like growing."

Dominating the garden is a long, raised island bed that almost runs the whole length of the plot. It is home to hundreds of plants, many of which remain hidden from sight until the foliage of the plants above them are peeled back. At the end of the bed are plants that sport hot or dark colours.

Bending down near this mixture of plants, Edwin carefully parts some of the foliage and points out a small plant.

"That's the renga renga lily," he explains. "I bought the seed back from New Zealand two years ago. I've only ever seen it flower there and I've no idea when it will bloom here."

Otherwise known as Arthropodium cirratum, it is a clump-forming plant with fleshy leaves that bears panicles of scented white flowers. It is entirely suited to its covert position, being a useful plant for growing in dry shade.

"I usually collect seed of some description on my trips," he adds.

The focal point for the bed is a Choisya ternata Sundance, which has been planted in the highest area. Its golden foliage sparkles in the sunlight beside a golden-variegated holly. Beneath this evergreen foliage is a waterfall leading to a small pond. Its bank is clad in a coat of variegated Hedera helix Glacier', and in the summer it benefits from the flowers and foliage of many hostas. Strong sphere shapes held on stout stems are cast around the pond by a range of different alliums. These still look fabulous in the autumn, when the globe-like blooms turn into simple skeletal seed-heads.

"I leave them like this. I think they are so gorgeous. I've got Allium cristophii, A. Globemaster' and A. schubertii, which looks just like a sputnik," he laughs.

For most of the summer, the end of this bed and a long border to the right of the garden are filled with multiple spires of delphiniums. Edwin is highly passionate about these plants and can name all 25 of his varieties, even when they have lost their blooms. He has grown some of these plants in his garden for nearly 30 years, but thinks that they put on a better show in 2002 than in previous years.

"They started to flower in the middle of June and I had them flowering well into August. I cut them right down and now they are back again with another flush of flowers in October," enthuses Edwin.

Perhaps the most eye-catching in the garden, not only because it can reach almost 2m (62/3ft) in a good year, is Nimrod', which bears the most intense, dark-purple flower spikes.

But it's roses that Edwin can't live without. He has found a space for a rose in almost every corner of the garden, but it still leaves visitors flabbergasted when they learn that he has about 65 different types. "The air is gorgeous during the summer when the scent is caught on the evening breeze," he reminisces.

Some of his roses have been used creatively as partners for other plants. For example, as you enter Edwin's garden from the back gate you are confronted with a catmint teamed with a Ballerina' rose.

"It's a wonderful combination. Everyone who walks through the gate says Wow!' That's the art of gardening: planting things together that complement one another," says Edwin.

Most gardens have a tricky area where it is difficult to know what to plant, and Edwin's patch is no exception. His solution for a shady area of land under some trees is to plant a border of Helleborus x hybridus Ashwood Garden hybrids and to raise a collection of camellias.

At the back of this bed, Edwin shows off some of his do-it-yourself skills. An aquamarine-coloured dresser, built from the wood of an old shed, has shelves where he displays some of his favourite trinkets. Shells, alpine saxifrages growing in shallow pans, terracotta pots and wraps of raffia are all placed out neatly.

"I put all the things of interest that I like in it," he says.

Edwin's sense of humour can also be seen in a corridor of space down the side of his house, where he's planted a mass of hostas, guarded by a sign that reads "No snails allowed.

The slugs and snails observed the sign and I didn't have any damage for most of the summer," reveals Edwin.

Growing so many plants, especially perennials such as achilleas, lupins, larkspurs, penstemons and paeonies, would lead you to believe that Edwin's garden would require a small army of workers to keep it in shape. However, he carries out all the hard work himself, and he's especially busy in the spring and autumn.

"It's high maintenance at certain times of the year. I have to stake and tie everything up when it all starts growing like crazy. There's also a lot of work to do in the autumn, because you've got to cut everything down to ground level and get it all neat. I usually finish the tidying up before Christmas," he explains.

Despite all the hard work that it takes to create such a rich garden of flowers, Edwin never grumbles. He says there isn't really any task he doesn't enjoy. However, he is not a slave to his garden and in the summer it often has to compete with his other love, visiting the opera.

"If I'm not at the opera, I like to listen to the music in the garden. I think there are similarities between the two. I find that in both places you've got peace," he reflects.

The complete feature with photographs on Edwin Rye's garden appears in the February edition of Gardeners' World.

January 23, 2003 11:30