Bob Brown is a nurseryman who knows his clientbase – as he told us impulse buys are very good for a nurseryman's cashflow - and he was speaking to an audience who know their plants. Even so he entertained us with a number of suggestions for plants to include in our gardens. Ciaphora lateritum to teach children respect for plants – it stings! Helicodiceros muscivorus – just to enjoy saying the name, a lovely looking plant with a stench like a rotting sheep's carcass. But this was from a man who grows thirteen varieties of dandelion. He also enjoys the autumn-flowering narcissus viridiflora, a curious delicate green flower that smells of pongy feet. Despite a propensity to go plant hunting world-wide he reminded us that good plants can be found in unexpected places, like peltaria aliacia or garlic cress which he came upon in Hull; it has good winter foliage and can be used as a substitute for either garlic or cress. He noted that black-flowered plants sell well although they don't show up in the garden. The fashion for dark or apparently dead plants obviously amuses Bob: verbascum luridum, knipholia typhoides, carmichalia glabrate, and pseudopanax ferox all got a mention. But Bob gets good business from nerdy clients who like unusual plants!