DESPITE suffering severe hail damage the world's largest collection of fuchsias is once again open to the public.

Its owner George Puddefoot has fought back from financial disaster after 1,500 greenhouse windows were destroyed in a freak storm in June.

The Riverside Nursery, at Sutton at Hone, was able to carry on despite being uninsured thanks to an emergency fund Mr Puddefoot had been saving in to over the years.

Some 250 plants were damaged and £12,000 worth of glass destroyed and even more of the 5,400 rare, prize-winning plants would have been damaged if the glass had not been caught by netting put up the day before to shade the flowers from extreme heat.

Mr Puddefoot, 60, said: “My first reaction was to close down and walk away but it's been a lifetime hobby and we couldn't give up. We weren't insured because after the 1987 storm, insurance companies put in a proviso saying they did not cover inclement weather.

“But luckily we had been putting money away for years into a contingency fund in case this type of thing happened.”

The collection of fuchsias was started in Swanley in 1870 and passed down through the family.

Mr Puddefoot took over in 1960 and has built the collection up from 500 plants. People come from all over the world to buy and donate fuchsias, the latest addition coming from Romania.

Only four days after the devastating storm on June 26, the fuchsias were exhibited at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in the national collection.

Royal Horticultural Society spokesman Richard Nicolle said: “I was amazed Mr Puddefoot, who had 60 per cent of his greenhouses destroyed, rang me up to see if he could provide plants at the flower show. He must be very resilient.”