10 SEPTEMBER 1988, Page 23

Roughing it

THE. City, I must say, has always been fond of its flowers. A Victorian occasion saw the City Horticultural Society addres- sed by the Rothschild of the day. Clerks in their thousands, eager to hear the secrets of the great Rothschild plantations and hothouses at Exbury and Tring, had de- layed their returns to their own trim and modest patches. The speaker beamed be- nevolently and began with a word of advice. 'No garden', he told them, 'howev- er small, should be without an acre or two of rough woodland.'