PLANT by name, plant by nature - that is financial adviser John Plant who has literally gone back to his roots as a qualified landscape gardener.

John, of Rewela Cottage, Skewsby, near Castle Howard is still in financial services, as manager for a small York financial practice, where three or four days in the week he helps people to grow their money, but the rest of the time he spends on his new venture, John Plant Design & Construction, growing other people's gardens.

He said: "It's nice to get back to getting my hands dirty. I'm bracing myself to cater for the garden needs of up to 20 clients over the next 12 months.

"Already I've had a few jibes about my name, but they have not come from my partner who, aptly, is called Daphne, nor my mother, whose maiden name was Hill, nor my Aunt Rose! I'm also trying not to reveal the secret that I once used to live in Elm Grove on the Wirrall - yes, I'm a real Wacker from Birkenhead."

He will specialise in landscaping, design and construction and cater for "all tastes and all sizes," he said.

John trained as a gardener at Rease Heath agricultural College in Nantwich, Cheshire for two years up to 1970 then took a year's training course in tree surgery at Merrist Wood, Guildford, Surrey to which he returned two years later for a landscape design course, emerging with top honours.

He first became involved in financial services when a friend who was a financial adviser in Peterborough asked for his marketing skills. Together they set up a financial services firm specialising in mortgages. Eighteen months later he moved to Swindon and set up on his own. He moved to offices in Clifton Moor York in 1997, and has been there ever since, selling insurance and mortgages.

"I am now in an ideal position not only to do creative gardening for others, but also to arrange finance for my gardening clients." he said.

Updated: 10:57 Monday, October 03, 2005