Water works: conifers and fountains are central to the Parks' displays; solar power runs the water features and the water can be pumped without electricity even on the most hazy day.

SHE was town bred and grew up with little knowledge of gardening but Lesley Park has a passion for pines. She became interested in growing things when she married Bill, who was brought up on a farm, and now she has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Latin names of plants and trees as well as expertise in horticulture.

The Parks run Woodthorpe Garden Centre in Well Road, Bathgate, which is known throughout Scotland for its collection of conifers. They exhibit at the Strathclyde and the Highland shows - the first time they showed at the Highland, in 1993, they won a Golden Award.

The couple took a gamble when they gave up full-time jobs with Scottish Gas and started their first gardening business 16 years ago at Blackness near Linlithgow. They sold the normal run of bedding plants and shrubs but gradually their interest in conifers took over.

Eighteen months ago, they moved to Woodthorpe Garden Centre where they stock 80 different conifers in their landscaped acres, of forestry, ponds and a waterfall.

When the Parks lay out a display garden, its centre piece is always a special conifer tree and a water feature. Lesley says she goes to the show with a vague idea of the garden she wants to create and builds it up as she goes along.

Her favourite tree for exhibition gardens is an eye-catching seven-foot Bhutan pine - ''Pinus Wallichiana,'' says Lesley - a dense, bluey-grey beauty with delicate feathery foliage.

Lesley bought it two years ago despite doubts about its hardiness. But it has stood outside unprotected in her garden since then without harm - ''and Bathgate is quite high, though not as high as Bhutan''.

Another favourite tree for the Parks is their Cupressis cashmiriana, which, though a native of Kashmir, is not

hardy in Scotland and is best grown under glass. Lesley saw her first example of this growing as a massive tree in one of the glasshouses of the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh and fell in love with it.

After a long search she eventually tracked down one for herself in a nursery in Southern England and brought it back to Bathgate where it is now a sapling that is being grown on with the utmost care. It, too, has become a feature of her prize-winning garden displays.

''It looks like the Northern Lights with pendulous foliage of a wonderful bluey green colour, very silky like ruched curtains.''

Woodthorpe Garden Centre has focused on conifers because of Lesley's interest. ''I like pines best,'' she says, ''but my love of them grew out of my fascination for green plants that don't shed their leaves and I'm also very fond of ferns and grasses."

Pines are rewarding to grow and not too demanding to look after, says Lesley. They like an acidic soil - ''just grow them a mixture of mulch and peat and they are fine and from time to time feed them with something high in nitrogen to green them up and they'll always look lovely''.

As well as displaying their conifer garden in the marquee at the Strathclyde show, the Parks have an outside stand displaying and selling features, plants and equipment for water gardens.

Bill will also be showing his interest in the solar pumps and solar lights for gardens which he has started to stock. These are ideal for flowing water installations and fountains as they do away with the problems of laying on electricity - and don't need wires or safety plugs.

''All you need to keep a solar powered fountain working,'' says Bill, ''is hazy sun. They even work in overcast weather.''