Bill Knox enjoys one exhibit which has

managed to combine the best of both worlds - a cultivated patch with its own wild side

SCOTLAND is becoming a favourite patch for foreign garden enthusiasts and increasingly their touring coaches are on their way to a showpiece Highland garden, according to Rhu garden designer and architect Michael Thornley.

''It is happening more each year,'' said Thornley, at the 10-acre Glenarn Gardens. ''A coachload of garden enthusiasts comes over, they base themselves in a centre such as Oban, then visit a planned programme of gardens, one day at a time. Our most recent coachload came from France.''

Glenarn, which was an overgrown wilderness 15 years ago, attracts several thousand visitors a year from all over Europe. It is one of many

gardening attractions in the area and visitors

to the garden show this weekend will be able to see why.

Thornley created the design for the showpiece, Taming the Wilderness, being presented by Glorious Gardens of Argyll and Bute, a group of 19 gardens from Appin to the Isle of Gigha.

He split the group's site into two areas divided by a stream and a pond. On one side - ''the wild side'' - there is a selection of mature trees, including birch, alder and rowan, along with wild flowers, fallen logs and a cairn. Across the stream, on the ''cultivated'' side, is a range of exotic plants including Meconopsis, the Himalayan blue poppy, rhododendrons and azaleas.

''Anyone with a garden knows that it can slide back towards a wilderness,'' said Thornley. ''We are setting out to show the other side of the transition - from a wild Highland landscape to a cultivated garden.''

Members of the Glorious Gardens group have all made individual contributions of plants and materials towards their showpiece. It is the climax of months of planning meetings - many of them at Inveraray as a central point - and the resulting collective approach has continued. Some 30 people have come from the Highlands and Islands to create their exhibit and many will remain on site throughout the show.

''The 19 locations behind Glorious Gardens of Argyll and Bute are of major importance to the whole area in terms of tourist and other interests,'' said Thornley. ''If our Taming the Wilderness exhibit encourages visitors to the show to visit the gardens behind it, then our purpose will have been achieved.''

Work on the project started last September, explained Sheila Downie, who lives on the island of Seal and is secretary of the group's design committee.

''Regular meetings have been held ever since, despite the travel complications invloved. Planting work has been co-ordinated by Maurice Wilkins of Arduaine, by Oban, along with Peter Baxter of the Younger Botanic Gardens, near Dunoon, and Peter Cool of Jura House.

''As a group, we include wonderful gardens some of which have a history going back to the earliest part of the eighteenth century.''

The marketing group, the first of its kind in Britain, was set up in 1994 with the basic aim of increasing visitor numbers.

''These numbers are certainly growing,'' said Downie. ''We now have regular liaison with more than 50 Scottish-based tour operators and we handle inquiries from more than 70 tour operators in 20 countries.

''Our members' gardens are spread throughout the old Dalriad Kingdom of Argyll. They are set amid some of the most spectacular scenery in the world and there's something to all year round.''

Gardens on the list include Ardchattan Priory Garden, Oban, Crarae Gardens, Inveraray, and Achamore Gardens on Gigha.