AN ANGUS woman has come up smelling of roses from her latest horticultural handwork to aid destitute children in Mongolia.

Months of painstaking effort in her garden is now blossoming for Eleanor Gledhill, of Forfar, who is set to reap a much-needed cash harvest for the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation.

Eleanor has reared a collection of unusual plants she is selling to aid the charity and its work in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator.

And her dedication has become so infectious she has been joined by a burgeoning band of supporters digging in to help the foundation, which rescues abandoned children living in the capital’s sewers.

Eleanor hit on the idea of growing and selling perennial plants for the charity after embarking on an earlier gardening fund-raiser.

She enlisted an army of enthusiasts who bought cabbage seeds for a competition to grow the biggest one, with monster specimens expected to be unveiled later this year.

“Once the cabbages took off, the idea then came for growing plants,” she said yesterday. “The plants are unusual types not generally available but they have been grown locally and are used to the climate and soil here.

“They don’t have plant miles, if such a thing exists, because they have not been imported and will thrive for years in a garden.”

Among the plants she is potting up are tree lupins, angel’s fishing rods, 4ft-tall geraniums and celmisia, a South African daisy.

They come from her own collection and have also been handed in by supportive gardeners.

Friockheim Gardening Club has pitched in to help, as have businesses and other organisations who are providing compost, sand and soil and plant pots.

Kookaburra’s Restaurant, on the edge of Forfar, and Milton Haugh, near Carmyllie, will sell the plants.

She committed herself to aiding the street children after witnessing their plight when she and her husband, Martin, took part in the Mongol Rally last year.