For the past 35 years Lady Clarissa Collin has been creating a stunning garden at Wytherstone Gardens. The former vicarage, dating back to 1909, had very little garden when Lady Clarissa. Two uninteresting herbaceous borders where the Spring Garden now stands, and very little else other than fields surrounding the house greeted her after moving here from her family home at Nawton Tower.

Lady Clarissa is the daughter of the late Earl of Feversham , who before his sudden and tragic death in 1963, owned the Duncomb Park Estate, which was subsequently divided between his male heir, the present Lord Feversham at Duncomb Park in Helmsley, and lady Clarissa.

Gardening is in Lady Clarissa's blood. Her father created the gardens at Nawton Tower and Penneyhoime near Kirbymoorside, sadly both gardens are no longer i n the family having been sold many years ago to help pay death duties when the Earl of Feversham died .

Inspiration to develop the gardens came from Jim Russell when he gave Lady Clarissa some small unnamed tree seedlings. It was then her real passion for plants and trees began, and she l i as worked hard to create this large plants man's paradise full of rare shrubs and perennials as well as her trees

After the death of Jim Russell in 1996, Lady Clarissa with kind permission of I n s sister, saved part of his personal plant collection which is now thriving at Wytherstone Garden .

Lady Clarissa acknowledges that James Russell, the late award winning plantsman, was a huge inspiration in the gardens development. Particularly the small arboreatum where there are several trees and shrubs collected from his major expeditions to Western China and Mexico. Some of them are so rare that they still have not been identified!

• James Russell was great friends with the late Earl and Countess of Feversham, and their daughter Lady Clarissa Colin whom he met through Nawton Tower Garden.
• He influenced Lady Clarissa through his enthusastic and knowledgeable approach to gardening.

James loved plants and grew alpines on his windowsill while being educated at Eaton in the early part of the 20th century. Later, after being invalided out of the army early in the Second World War, he went to work at Sunningdale Nursery, Windlesham, Surrey. Despite having no formal education in horticulture he quickly absobed all he was taught.

After twenty years at the nursery James moved to Castle Howard, near York where he really made his name:

• He laid out a rose garden with old shrub roses.
• Ray Wood was given a new look with many superb shrubs.
• His major contribution to British horticulture was his huge and detailed Arboreatum which is considered so important that the Royal Botanical Gardens have taken it under their wing.

Without a doubt James Russell was one of the most noted and able gardeners of the late twentieth century.

Magnificent 18th century palace surrounded by extensive landscaped grounds. The walled garden contains over 400 seasoned roses. James Russell started the garden in 1975 and occupies a large square area that has long been devoted to vegetables. The southern half is Lady Cecilia's Garden; the northern half is divided into two roughly square gardens; the Sundial Garden is where you find modern roses. Standard roses are planted among them, adding height and small explosions of colour.

The new arboretum at Castle Howard represents one of the most exciting new developments in horticulture and botany for the new millennium. When planting began in 1975, the late Lord Howard and James Russell, VMH, shared a vision to create one of the most comprehensive collections of hardy woody plants in Europe.

Because of the botanical importance of the extensive collections of woody plants held in both the arboretum and in the woodland garden in Ray Wood, a joint charitable trust has been formed between Castle Howard and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to safeguard the future of the collections.

These remarkable collections, comprising some 6,500 different taxa (identifiably different types of plant) were planted from 1968, when the valuable historic collection formed at the Sunningdale Nursery in Surrey was transported to Ray Wood. This 40-acre area of woodland had been clear-felled and reforested with hardwoods in 1948, but was first surveyed in 1563 and much of the extant ground flora is characteristic of secondary ancient woodland. Ray Wood today boasts a wonderful collection of rhododendrons, some 500 species and 300 important hybrids, along with many other rare shrubs and trees, among them other members of the family Ericaceae, such as Vaccinium and Gaultheria, and considerable collections of genera such as Sorbus, Magnolia, Rosa and Acer.

In the arboretum, a native flora of species-rich grassland, dotted with orchids, king cups and bog bean, nestles beneath exotic trees gathered from around the temperate world, providing a landscape that is unique in both style and substance.