The maze, topiary and trees will need a last minute trim and the summer garden is at its glorious lush and colourful best for this year’s Chenies Manor Plant and Garden Fair.

As she prepares to open the gate for the 15th fair, and a garden brimming over with growth, hostess and head gardener Elizabeth MacLeod Matthews marvels at the effect of the weather.

“A surprising number of things did better after the wet last year. And the cold winter and the spring were just a joy for gardeners,“ she says.

Chenies Manor Plant and Garden Fair, which has established itself as the ultimate planthunters’ paradise and attractive alternative to the mega-fairs, once again offers a wide range of plants from specialist nurseries and carefully selected garden accessories as well as a pleasant day out.

Surprises, too, as Elizabeth believes in making a few changes to add interest to the established part of the fair.

This year has seen the launch of the Chenies Manor campaign to Save Our Bees and The Bee Guardian Foundation will be adding impact to this by setting up stall in the gazebo used in the BBC filming of Little Dorrit and now focal point, the parterre fairground.

The ‘secret’ entrance through the garden wall to the Physics Garden is easily overlooked, but the display of medicinal and culinary herbs is this year enhanced by the presence and observations of medical herbalist, Hilda Solomons, who has dubbed the garden “a 16th Century pharmacy“.

Helen Yemm, popular gardening columnist and author (Gardening in Pyjamas), will be back to help solve thorny problems, and Ploskorez, a new line in Russian tools, has just been added to the list of more than 70 exhibitors.

The manor garden will be open all day with refreshments available from the Barn Brasserie. The historic house, reputedly haunted by Henry VIII, will be open in the afternoon, when a relaxed atmosphere is underlined by mellow music by the Damian Consort.