Lucienne’s delight in the decorative qualities of plants and the vitality visible in their forms had inspired many of her designs. Yet she had long been ‘a frustrated gardener’, limited to cultivating pelargoniums and fig trees in pots on the terrace at Cheyne Walk.

Then in 1964 the Days had found and rented a tiny cottage deep in the woods of West Sussex. From then on they spent nearly every weekend there. At last Lucienne had real soil, and she created a woodland garden of climbing roses and spring-flowering shrubs, many with white flowers and beautifully-shaped leaves. At the end of the century they moved from Cheyne Walk to a town house in Chichester, which gave them much easier access to their beloved cottage.