Napoleon called England a nation of shopkeepers: given the demise of the British high street, it would be more appropriate today to call it a nation of gardeners. The bicentenary of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) this year has spawned a green-fingered fever across a country where gardening is already a national pastime; where more than 15% of the population has a conservatory; where television gardeners are national heart-throbs; and where almost everyone has an opinion on rhododendrons. "We believe that growing plants makes people's lives better," says Andrew Colqu-houn, chief executive of the RHS, a charity that runs gardens and education centres across Britain, and is organising a profusion of celebrations for its 200th birthday. Since 1804, the group has ballooned from a handful of botanists who pooled their resources and sent plant collectors across the empire in search of specimens (one of the founders, Joseph Banks, travelled with Captain Cook on the Endeavour), to one of the largest subscription associations in the country. In the past 20 years, membership has grown from 70,000 to 345,000.
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