After his wise, elderly roommate Fergus (a recovering alcoholic imprisoned for killing three wives)[4] introduces him to gardening, Colin uncovers a talent and passion for plants.

Before leaving, Colin eventually tells Fergus how, when he was 18, he beat his younger brother to death in a blind rage for having an affair with the girl he was about to marry.

Colin, wanting to join his team in the competition, breaks into a flower shop, steals a bunch of yellow roses that he delivers to Primrose's doorstep to tell her that their relationship must end and is sent back to Edgefield.

Before the event is over, though, they are convoked by H.M. Queen Elizabeth, the Show's Patron: she wants a private meeting with Colin, Raw, and Jimmy because she feels, unofficially, that they were robbed at judging.

The film was shot in Britain in five weeks on a budget of £2 million, with the help of the Royal Horticultural Society and English garden designer Rosemary Verey.

Roger Ebert gave it two out of four stars, calling the film "twee," and "amusing enough," though he felt that people should wait to watch Greengfingers on cable television.

"[10] Dave Kehr of The New York Times criticized the film for "[striving] to be an adorable Anglo-Irish comedy," and coming across "as synthetic as a rubber rose."

Ogle wrote that the film was "pleasant, mildly uplifting entertainment," and "Greenfingers combats its inherent corniness with doses of wry humor.