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| BBC gardening expert Smith dies | BBC gardening expert Smith dies |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Gardener, broadcaster and writer Geoffrey Smith has died aged 80. | |
| He appeared on BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time for 20 years and created one of the great gardens of northern England - Harrogate's Harlow Carr. | He appeared on BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time for 20 years and created one of the great gardens of northern England - Harrogate's Harlow Carr. |
| Gardening was his great joy as well as his work. "If I am depressed, or I think the world's a filthy place, I just go and look at a flower," he said. | Gardening was his great joy as well as his work. "If I am depressed, or I think the world's a filthy place, I just go and look at a flower," he said. |
| His BBC2 series Geoffrey Smith's World of Flowers was watched by more than five million viewers. | |
| They were attracted by his philosophy that plants have unique personalities, share human feelings and "need as much pampering as women". | They were attracted by his philosophy that plants have unique personalities, share human feelings and "need as much pampering as women". |
| He presented several series on BBC2, including Gardeners' World. | |
| Life's tonic | |
| Mr Smith was an old school gardener and staunch Yorkshireman with a golden rule: "Put the brown end in the soil, the green end above it, and you're in with a much better chance." | Mr Smith was an old school gardener and staunch Yorkshireman with a golden rule: "Put the brown end in the soil, the green end above it, and you're in with a much better chance." |
| He was proud to grow plants in Yorkshire which were thought unsuitable for a northern climate, saying it was a "confidence born of ignorance". | |
| He decided his life's work would be outdoors after a year at boarding school, where he felt "incarcerated" and had to leave. | He decided his life's work would be outdoors after a year at boarding school, where he felt "incarcerated" and had to leave. |
| Mr Smith trained with his father for six years, then at horticultural college. | |
| At the age of 26, he was made superintendent of the garden at Harlow Carr, where he worked for 20 years. | |
| Gardening, he believed, put the world to rights. | |
| "Some people go to the whisky bottle," he said. "I go into the garden." |