That delphinium daze

Then he and his wife Maureen bought a house with a large overgrown garden in Blantyre and Coakley decided to create a low maintenance shrubbery out of an old herbaceous border that was 150ft long by 30ft wide.

''When I planted out my shrubs at the distances apart advised by my gardening books, the bed looked very empty so I decided to fill it in with a few perennials and when the shrubs grew up, I could get rid of them - I thought.

''In the first year I bought 65 varieties of seed and among them was one packet of delphiniums. All of the seeds except these delphiniums thrived - only one actually grew but when I saw it flowering I thought it was the most fantastic thing I'd ever seen. I was hooked.''

His solitary delphinium fired Coakley with the ambition to grow more, and, being a man who believes in doing things correctly, he started to investigate why his other delphinium seeds had failed.

''I wanted to know what made them tick so I went to Culzean Castle where I knew they had a very good delphinium display and asked the gardener there how to handle the seeds and he told me that they are very difficult - almost impossible to germinate in fact.''

Which was a challenge to Coakley. By taking immense pains and experimenting, he cracked the problem. Today his specially bred Clansman series of delphiniums are among the best in the country and he wins prizes with them wherever he shows.

But it has not been easy. It began with a nine-month search to track down the Delphinium Society in Kent for seeds.

He then discovered that if he kept his seeds in the refrigerator they had a better chance of successful germination. ''You can keep them safely in the fridge for up to four years,'' he advised.

Once germinated, he nurses his plants like patients in intensive care and when they begin to flower, he gets up at 5 o'clock in the morning and tends them until seven when he goes off to work. In the evening he is back in the garden until 10 pm.

First, he pollinates the flower heads by hand to make sure he gets the hybrids he wants. Then when the seed pods begin to form the most painstaking part of his labours begin.

''I have to work flat out when the seeds are ripening because it all happens over a period of only six weeks,'' he said.

When the ripe seed pods are collected he lays them out on paper to dry for two to three days and then he and Marueen carefully sort the seeds from the chaff. This process takes hours and hours of work.

Delphiniums have taken over Coakley's life. ''I used to have hobbies like fishing and weight training but that's all in the past now,'' he said.

He and Maureen - who helps out and goes to shows even although she is not a fan of delphiniums - have a 16-year-old son and a 19-year-old daughter. The children don't share their father's enthusiasm for delphiniums either, but take over the care of the precious flowers so that their parents can go on holiday - at the end of August when both the big flower shows and the seed gathering times are over.

Coakley's specially bred Clansman series of delphiniums are magnificent plants. They come in a range of colours - dark and light blue, white, pink and purple - and are distinguished by their ability to withstand the worst the Scottish climate can throw at them.

''They won't bat an eyelid at minus 20,'' said Coakley proudly. ''They are tested to the extremes.''

They are also spectacular. His average plant produces six 6ft spikes - he advises not to grow more than six from any one plant - but he has grown some that stand as high as 11ft 6ins.

In 1996, when he took 14 specimens ranging between 11ft and 6ft to the Highland Show, he hired an articulated lorry to transport them.

Coakley, who is 47, says he has no secret formula for raising spectacular delphiniums apart from the fact that he is very particular about which plants he selects to rear.

''Out of 700 plants I grow on each spring, I only earmark one or two from which to breed,'' he said.

He also advises that gardeners should give their plants a balanced food ''a little and often''.

He uses granulated Growmore once a month every month from March till September and stresses that with all perennials the feeding season should continue for at least a month after the flowering period is over to give the plants a good start for the next year.

As for the problem of slugs - a major hazard to delphiniums - Coakley has a way of dealing with them too.

''On January 25, I pour a liquid preparation of Slugit over the crowns of my plants and that kills the slug eggs. Then I scatter pellets around them as soon as they start to grow.''

Though Coakley's garden boasts the biggest display of delphiniums in Scotland - he admits to growing hardly anything else - he does not open it to the public. However, this summer he has rented a stretch of ground from the Auchenrait Garden Centre at Blantyre where hundreds of his Clansman delphiniums can be seen in their magnificence.