IT'LL be a posh frock if not quite her tiara for Caroline Orgee this weekend as she takes her place at the high court of horticulture, the Royal Horticultural Society Malvern Floral Marquee at the Spring Gardening Show.

After only half a dozen years of serious business, Caroline has been elevated to a peerage in the plant world, a stand among the top 95 nurseries in the land at the first major gardening event of the season, at Malvern's Three Counties Showground.

Which isn't bad for a lady who started off selling plants she grew in her garden at Brockamin, near Leigh, to passers-by.

Mind you, she should have green, if not muddy, fingers.

Caroline is part of the Holloway farming dynasty and her glasshouse nursery is next to the family's conservatory furniture showrooms at Lower Court Farm, Suckley, which were created out of an old hop building 20 years ago.

It is therefore no co-incidence she specialises in conservatory plants. These should not be confused with house plants. The two are entirely different and, if you treat them the same, you'll kill one or the other.

Caroline's career as a horticulturalist only began after her three strapping sons - the eldest Ed is captain of Birmingham's Pertemps Bees rugby club - were able to look after themselves.

Her husband, also called Ed, farms 200 acres at Brockamin and in the farmhouse garden, his wife began growing her own.

"It was just a little back garden nursery," she explained.

"I started off by selling plants to people passing by and a few at fairs run by the WI or the Red Cross.

"It never occurred to me then that I'd end up in the RHS marquee at the Spring Gardening Show.

"For a couple of years I did have a small outdoor stand at the Three Counties Show, but then it became too expensive and not really worth the effort."

However, the chance to expand arose when Caroline's brother Edward Holloway - there are a lot of Edwards in this story - asked his sister if she would like to use a glasshouse he was putting up next to the conservatory and interior design showroom at Lower Court Farm.

It was an ideal opportunity and probably the start of the road to success.

With more room and better facilities, Caroline launched with gusto into her dream of conservatory and container planting.

She began propagating or buying in citrus, bougainvillea, jasmines, cestrums and various other types of plant native to hotter climes, particularly the Mediterranean and Australia.

"Some of the best are the Australians. They're as tough as old boots really," she added.

"Although if you treat them properly, most will adapt perfectly well."

Caroline mixed her stock with some hardy perennials and gradually the little back garden nursery began to get noticed.

But she never had any great expectations of making it big in the RHS world.

Then, two years ago, the Spring Gardening Show introduced a Nurseries for Nurserymen section, aimed at encouraging plantspeople who don't normally exhibit at RHS shows.

Caroline took a stand and at her first attempt won a bronze medal. Last year, she entered again and won a silver.

"I think it was on the strength of that I was invited into the Malvern Floral Marquee this year," she said.

"It was quite a surprise and not what I was expecting at all."

So this weekend the back garden nursery from Brockamin has stepped forward to take its place among the horticultural hierarchy.

On Stand Six in the RHS marquee it is exhibiting alongside growers who have won more gold medals that Steve Redgrave and were making a habit of it long before Caroline propagated her first polygala.

"Am I nervous? A bit. It is my first time and the standard is always so high at Malvern, but I'll give it my top shot and see what the judges decide."

It's a weekend when both the plants and the plantswoman will be in their Sunday best.