Like many of our PlantSpotters characters, Dick Maas considers himself to be a very lucky man.  

Having inherited his father's production nursery, where many fields are dedicated to the growing of perennials, he couldn't be happier.

Dick relaxes on one of the many benches that provide a beautiful view of the garden. These arches frame a walkway plated with Alchemilla mollis, Hemerocallis, Sedums and miniature Thyme, amongst other yellow-themed plants.

"I get to spend all day on my hobby" are Dick's words to sum up the situation, as in between tending to the production crops in the fields, he's able to dabble in his own garden, which is an Aladdins Cave of interesting varieties collected from around the world, expertly and artistically combined by Dick's wife, Marja.

Despite his fascination for collecting unusual varieties, Dick has never taken the plunge into trying to breed them himself. However, Verbascum 'Flower of Scotland' is not his only contribution to the world of gardening with perennials. Potentilla 'Arc-en-Ciel' is a variety he named after finding it at a nursery in France, and took it upon himself to mass propagate it to make it available to gardeners around the world.

Potentilla 'Arc-en-Ciel' has massive double flowers that undergo spectacular colour transformations as they mature.