Delightful descriptions and characterizations enliven this tale of an old-time gardener in an English countryside garden and his love of plants. With tender mentoring and the luck of winning a prize at the flower show, young Herbert becomes what he had dreamed of. This is the amusing story of an awkward orphan child with one leg a bit longer than the other who rises from unremarkable school-boy days spent picking wild-flowers and dodging angry farmers to become the legendary head gardener 'Old Herbaceous,' the most esteemed flower-show judge in the county and a famed horticultural wizard. Old Herbaceous traces his journey from young help to head gardener and although things have changed, the world had started with a garden (in Eden) after all, and things that old don't disappear so easily!Sprinkled with many nuggets of gardening wisdom, this is THE classic novel of the garden and the gardener, a witty and comical portrait, with a main character as unforgettable as P. G. Wodehouse’s immortal butler, Jeeves.