David and Tom Stone at Mottisfont Abbey, Hampshire

David Stone has been Head Gardener at Mottisfont since 1978, and his main area of responsibility is the rose collection.

He learnt about horticulture through 10 years’ hands on experience in an 80 acre garden owned by the National Coal Board.

His son Tom was brought up at Mottisfont from the age of four and, following a spell at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and Arboretum nearby, has gardened there since 1996. Like his father, he still lives in the grounds.

Father and son care for Mottisfont’s 34 acres with the assistance of two other full-time gardeners, three part-timers (two of them temporary) and six regular volunteers.

Why did you choose gardening as a career?

David: It seems to be in the blood. I drifted in through the back door when I was 18 by working with my elder brother, who was a head gardener with the National Coal Board.

Tom: Growing up in a place like this helped and, of course, my father being a gardener had its impact. But it was my decision. I’ve been interested in gardening for as long as I can remember. When I was only 10, Geoff Smith wrote about the raspberries I grew in my own patch here.

Describe Mottisfont garden in one sentence.

Tom: A jewel in the Hampshire countryside, with a fabulous rose garden, rolling grounds and magnificent specimen trees, everything well balanced and fitting together nicely.

© NTPL / Stephen Robson

Which area do you like working in best?

David: It was the roses that drew me to Mottisfont, and it is the roses that keep me here. I was privileged to work with the National Trust’s Gardens Adviser and rose expert Graham Stuart Thomas for many years and I want to continue his work here as long as I can.

Tom: The riverbanks. I would hope that any garden I worked in would have running water, but few could match Mottisfont, which has its own stretch of the River Test - I believe it’s the longest stretch that can be walked along, and it is our visitors’ second favourite area after the rose garden.

What is the biggest challenge at Mottisfont?

Tom: Keeping the garden up to the standard the public expects. We have about 125,000 paying visitors a year, plus probably another 20,000 for our various events, and that imposes an obligation constantly to build up the garden so that there is more for people to see all year round.

What other garden might you like to work in?

David and Tom, in unison: There is absolutely nowhere we would rather work. Tom: But I would probably be perfectly happy somewhere like Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire, which has the advantage over Mottisfont of having a walled kitchen garden.

Name a historical gardener you’d like to meet.

David: Having shaken Graham Stuart Thomas’ hand, I’m a handshake away from Gertrude Jekyll, and I’d love to be able to talk to her about her gardening philosophy.

Tom: I’d like to talk to the plant collector Ernest Wilson about his life, a sort of Boy's Own adventure with a gardening twist.

Interview: Sue Corbett