THE YEAR 1974 was not a great one for gardening. There was still a feeling of financial unease in the air; the comparative prosperity we enjoy today was a distant prospect. There were people, and several at the RHS, who thought gardening at an ambitious level was a thing of the past. The term 'head gardener' sounded like something from an Oscar Wilde play. True, there was Hillier's nursery maintaining its astonishing catalogue of woody plants, and specialists round the country nursing their passions.But without, I suspect, much hope of a great gardening renaissance.Even the RHS had a moment of self-doubt, financially speaking, in 1974, after the Arab / Israeli war had quadrupled the price of oil in six months. The FTSE lost 73%. This is how I came to be involved with the Society and its journal.
NSTL
