A prince among plantsmen

The magnificent magnolias, many of them collected as seed in the wild, are only one aspect of this enthralling garden

- Charles Quest-Ritson

IF anyone deserves the title of the plantsman's plantsman it is Maurice Foster.' That was the verdict of the horticultural luminary Hugh Johnson after a visit to White House Farm in 2017.

Mr Foster's wisdom, experience, energy and enthusiasm for plants are admired by everyone who meets him. His memory is phenomenal, too-he can tell you where every one of the 6,000 plants in his collection came from and whether he thinks it is correctly named.

In 1971, Mr Foster and his late wife, Rosemary, bought White House Farm in Kent specifically because they wanted to make a large garden and grow trees and shrubs, such as magnolias. It came with five acres of land, to which they added a seven-acre apple orchard that is now the site of their arboretum and, later, three acres of woodland. The garden is 500ft above sea level, at the top of a ridge, so that winter frosts roll down to the valleys below. It is also extremely thickly planted, so that a great number of tender plants that would not normally survive flourish in the sheltered woodland areas.

The soil is variable, but is mostly a light loam with a pH of 5.5 to 6.5. Parts are quite stony and there are occasional veins of clay. Throughout the holding are seams of Kentish ragstone, an impermeable limestone that was once widely used as a damp course in local buildings. Apart from a century-old Bramley apple tree near the house, every single tree and shrub in the garden at White House Farm was planted by the Fosters in ground that they had cleared by hand.