UKTV Gardens: What's your favourite style of garden / garden design?
Chris: "A little bit of formality in the geometry of the layout. So formal geometry, formal layout, but then an absolute riot of plants imposed over the top. I like that conflict between what I suppose is a very artificial formality with nature then just running riot. I just find a it a very dynamic atmosphere."

UKTV Gardens: What is the coolest plant or flower in the world? And why?
Chris: "I'd probably go for something very simple like a daisy. It's a real survivor. It's one of those plants which equips itself in a very modest way with all the survival tactics available. You look at it and think it's very sweet and delicate. In truth, it's an absolute thug and very canny. The flowerhead will follow the sun. It doesn't open in subdued light as it knows there are no insects around. It won't expose itself in a very wanton way like a lot of flowers. You don't see enough of them in people's gardens. Gardeners spend far too much time digging them up. We should plant more daisies!"

UKTV Gardens: What has been your biggest gardening cock up?
Chris: "I used to work as a grower in nurseries and on one occasion, I was the only person there and I was driving a tractor with a trailer-load of plants on the back. Anyway, the phone started to ring so I hopped off the tractor, thinking I'd put it into neutral, and ran off to answer the phone. While talking to the customer, I saw the tractor was actually still in gear and was driving itself across three beds of newly potted plants. So I had to very politely explain to the customer that there was a tractor I needed to catch. By the time I stopped it, it had demolished several hundred plants, an irrigation system and a water butt."

UKTV Gardens: Is the changeable British weather a gardener's friend or foe?
Chris: "Friend, absolutely. Gardeners are fascinated, obsessed even with the weather, and I think that one of the reasons we have the best gardens in the world is because we have such diversity in our climate. There are very few other countries of this size that can grow such a range of plants. If you think about it, we've got plants from just about every continent in the world growing here - not just surviving, but thriving. That's precisely because of the climatic differences that we have."