HAMPSHIRE'S best-known television gardener is backing a Christmas appeal for children's charities.

Romsey's Charlie Dimmock has put her tools back in the potting shed for winter to appear on a set of Yuletide cards aiming to raise money for the National Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children.

She is joined in the celebrity set - which is on the theme of the Christmas favourite The 12 days of Christmas - by other well-known television and showbusiness names.

These include GMTV's Fiona Phillips, who is from Southampton, and celebrity heiress Lady Victoria Hervey.

Charlie's card, which is the first in the set, features her posing with a partridge and a pear tree. Other celebrities backing the appeal include sprinter Linford Christie, who is pictured with his Commonwealth, Olympic and European Championship medals.

Model Caprice, the stars from hit soap Emmerdale, and rock drummers Caroline Corr from The Corrs and Pink Floyd's Nick Mason are also throwing their weight behind the appeal.

Other children's charities to benefit from the sale of the cards include Children First and Woolworth's Kids First appeal.