On the other hand, maybe you just don't realise the immense passion aroused by China amongst English horticulturalists. Tree experts in particular can get a little bit overcome about the whole idea of the riches that are still to come from China - let alone what already arrived during the previous three centuries of travel.

Even though it sounds like I'm making fun of it a bit, I think the extravanganza idea is growing on me. We are really unaware of how many of our garden favourites come from China. We also tend not to know the exciting stories of the collectors who shinned up trees, fell into bogs, and generally skinned their knees to bring plants back. The idea of linking the five gardens at Leonardslee, Wakehurst, High Beeches, Nymans and Borde Hill is particularly good because they used a lot of the same collectors (three of the gardens belonged to members of the Loder family). So a visit to more than one of these gardens will give a real sense of increasing returns, as each garden will fill in a little bit more of the story.

All in all I'm quite happy to celebrate the Beijing Olympics by going around some Sussex gardens. Just don't ask me to do any of Bunny Guinness's weird flowerpot lifting exercise regimes.