CUTTINGS

A Garden Festival to raise money for the Dorset Gardens Trust will be held tomorrow (10am-5pm) at Thornhill Park, Stalbridge, Dorset, a six-acre garden currently being restored by Richard and Cary Goode. There is a formal area with a small parterre, a potager, two ponds and a willow garden. Craftsmen will show how to make hurdles and living sculptures of willow. Admission pounds 3. For further information call 01963 362746.

The University of Oxford Botanic Garden is celebrating its 375th anniversary with a series of special events, including summer tours round the garden. On Monday 17 June, the theme is Looking South, and the tour concentrates on plants from the southern hemisphere. On 8 July, the topic is The Gardener's Palette and focusses on ways of using colour in the garden. The tours will begin at 7pm underneath the Danby Arch at the Botanic Garden. The guides will be Louise Allen and Timothy Walker, the Curator (or Horti Praefectus as the job is described in Oxford). For tickets (pounds 5 including wine) call 01865 276920.

Elm House Nursery specialises in sending out collections of plants by mail order and at the end of their spring despatch season, have announced their customers' top 10 favourites. This year, as last, penstemons top the list, closely followed by the petunia 'Million Bells'. For a full list of 40 different plant collections, contact the nursery at Regal Rd, Wisbech, Cambs PE13 2RF (01945 581511).