Maurice Foster's keen interest in hydrangeas began over 65 years ago when he took a summer job during the university vacation with writer and nurseryman Michael Haworth Booth, author of the first specialist UK book on hydrangeas. Although known as an evangelist for the hydrangea, his interest is in all woody plants, as demonstrated by his garden and arboretum at White House Farm in Kent, now a charitable foundation, where he also grows significant collections of maples, magnolia, camellia, birches and deutzias among many other genera. He has been a member of the RHS Woody plant committee for the last 27 years; is a Trustee of the Tree Register of Britain and Ireland; and received the highest RHS award, the Victoria Medal of Honour, in 2011. He has travelled widely across the world in search of cool temperate woody plants.