David Douglas

We're starting series 12 of the Scotland Growshow at Pitlochry Festival Theatre but our journey today will take us far beyond Pitlochry to the far-flung corners of the earth as we enter the theatre's explorers garden with Caroline Bavey, its landscape and garden manager.

This six-acre chemical-free woodland garden is set on steep highland terrain and organised into global zones celebrating 300 years of the Scottish plant explorers who brought back familiar species in our landscape like the Douglas fir and rhododendrons.

Areas are organised by world region, with a large Himalayan section that houses the National Plant Collection of Mykonopsis, that gorgeous Himalayan blue poppy, right through a South American section to a Japanese garden and reflection pool.

And we'll find out why that area is Caroline's particular favourite.

And subscription makes a wonderful gift to yourself or for the other gardener in your life.

Well, of course you can't really understand, I guess, some of the elements of the explorer's garden without understanding those extraordinary Scots whose journeys are behind it.

Scottish plant hunters like George Forrest and David Douglas and people who brought back so much of what we now consider staple garden plants in our gardens.

But when you started working at the Explorers, Gareth and Carolyn, did you know so much about Scotland's great plant hunters?

Sadly, I don't know of any acorn-dwelling ants in Washington, most likely because the state has only one native oak, the Garry, or Oregon white oak.

David Douglas bestowed the scientific name Quercus garryana to honor Nicholas Garry, secretary and later deputy governor of the Hudson's Bay Company.

More common south of Tacoma, particularly on the prairies around Nisqually and Fort Lewis, Garry oaks prefer sunny, opened, well-drained sites.

In Seattle, one can find large Garry oaks at Seward Park, Oak Manor, and Martha Washington Park.