Valerie Finnis created a huge library of plant portraits, having learned about photography in the mid-1950s from Wilhelm Schacht, the Curator of the Munich Botanical Garden. He gave her a second-hand Rolleiflex camera, which she used for decades. Today, she is also remembered for her portraits of contemporary gardeners, often dressed in grand or eccentric outfits. Subjects included Margery Fish, Vita Sackville-West, Rhoda, Lady Birley, and Nancy Lancaster (above).