Gardening with the RHS

This week we’ll be dropping in with the advisory team at RHS Garden Wisley to answer some of your most asked questions this season. Plantsman Ed Cooper will be shining some light on the enigmatic delphiniums he’s been growing down at the trials field, and horticulturist Verity Battyll shares some top tips on how to keep your rose garden looking stunning all year round.

Host: Guy Barter

Contributors: Ed Cooper, James Lawrence, Amy Ashman, Nick Turrell, Verity Batyll

Other Links:

Bowes-lyon rose garden

Delphiniums

Become a RHS member

This week we’re diving into the enchanting world of herbs. Join us as author and horticulturist Connor Smith uncovers the rich history of these remarkable plants, celebrated in food, medicine, and mythology for millennia. The Queen of Herbs, Jekka McVicar, shares her expert advice on cultivating your own herb garden. From RHS Garden Wisley, Liz Mooney delivers a heartfelt love letter to her favourite herb. Plus, we’ll hear reflections from Wisley curator Matt Pottage as he bids a fond farewell after 20 dedicated years with the RHS.

Host: Gareth Richards

Contributors: Connor Smith, Jekka McVicar, Liz Mooney, Matt Pottage

Other Links:

How Herbs Healed the World by Connor Smith

100 Herbs to Grow by Jekka McVicar

Jekka’s farm website

From butternuts to tromboncinos – on this week's show, Wisley’s Liz Mooney tells us about some of her favourite squashes with top tips on how to grow them. Roz Marshall talks us through the results of the RHS Hebe trial at Wisley and Harlow Carr, and Director General Clare Matterson reflects on the announcement of King Charles III as the new patron of the RHS.

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: Liz Mooney, Roz Marshall, Clare Matterson

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk 

Links:

Shrubby Veronica (Hebe) trial results

How to grow squashes - RHS

RHS patron announcement

Welcome to RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024! We’re diving headfirst into all of the trends and highlights this hotly anticipated show has to offer; from the growers filling the Great Pavilion with their dazzling botanical displays, to the striking RHS Plant of the Year Prunus ‘Starlight’, and of course the legendary garden designers lining main avenue with some truly spectacular show gardens. 

This year is all about celebrating the young gardeners of tomorrow, so join us for a peak inside The RHS No Adults Allowed Garden designed by Harry Holding in collaboration with local schoolchildren, as well as Ula Maria’s Best Show Garden-winning Muscular Dystropy UK - Forest Bathing Garden showstopper, Tom Massey and Je Ahn’s Gold medal-winning WaterAid Garden, Tom Stuart-Smith’s luscious Gold-winning The National Garden Scheme Garden, Ann-Marie Powell’s RHS Children Choice Award-winning garden, and much, much more…

Presenters:

Jenny Laville, Gareth Richards, Guy Barter

Contributors:

Tom Massey, Je Ahn, Ula Maria, James Armitage, Ann-Marie Powell

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk 

Other links:

RHS Chelsea Flower Show Website

SheGrowsVeg

Urban Organic

Pure Grenada

This week we’re celebrating the abundance of colour on offer at this time of year. RHS trials project manager Roz Marshall shares the results of the Grandiflora sweet pea trial; highlighting some beautifully scented selections to try at home. Plantsman Andrew Large chats about the astonishing range of form and colour offered by the often overlooked Buddleja. And plant hunter Kevin Hobbs describes the discovery of a species new to science; the striking black Carex nodosa ‘Kurofune’, and the fascinating story behind its name…

All these stories and more can be found in the June edition of The Plant Review ‘Summer: The Season of Colour.’ You can find out more information on how to subscribe here

Presenters: Gareth Richards, and James Armitage

Contributors: Roz Marshall, Andrew Large, and Kevin Hobbs

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk 

Links:

Sweet Pea show at RHS Garden Wisley

The Buddleja Garden

Pinnacle Plants International

In the week leading to World Topiary Day, RHS Horticultural Advisor Jenny Bowden gives us an update on growing alternatives to box (Buxus sempervirens), with insights into the ongoing threat of box blight and box tree moth from Dr Stephanie Bird. Nurseryman Ed Canon from Langthorns Plantery shares his love for lilacs, flowering plants that haven’t always been considered fashionable, but are experiencing new interest due to exciting cultivar development and increased availability through micropropagation. Plus, Jenny Laville asks “what makes an award-winning garden?” as she meets Eleanor Hollingworth from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show judging team, two weeks ahead of the world’s most prestigious garden event. 

Presenter: Gareth Richards

Contributors: Dr. Stephanie Bird, Jenny Bowden, Jenny Laville, Eleanor Hollingworth, Ed Cannon

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk 

Links: 

Box alternatives trial at RHS Garden Wisley

Langthorns Plantery

Chelsea Flower Show Tickets

Peter Adams from RHS Garden Rosemoor gives a masterclass in growing indoor and outdoor cucumbers with suggested varieties for growing in different situations. Esteemed plantswoman Claire Austin shares her expertise in selecting and caring for peonies – covering herbaceous, tree and intersectional types. And American plant stylist and author Hilton Carter spreads joy through the gift of houseplants – with tips for multiplying your collection through techniques including leaf and stem cuttings.

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: Peter Adams, Claire Austin, Hilton Carter

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk 

Links: 

RHS Garden Rosemoor: Fruit and Vegetable Gardens

How to grow cucumbers

Claire Austin: Celebration of Flowers

How to grow herbaceous and intersectional peonies

Hilton Carter: The Propagation Handbook

RHS plant propagation guides

Gareth Richards, Jenny Laville and Guy Barter bring a jam packed show of highlights from the inaugural RHS Urban Show in Manchester - a festival of ideas focussed on greening up small spaces, looking after houseplants, and opening discussion about better urban planning. Amanda Grimes talks us through her easy-to-replicate designs for small (often concrete) spaces, including a Punk Rockery! Jason Williams aka The Cloud Gardener showcases seven innovative gardens designed with local communities that take on the challenges of urban gardening and development. Jacob James from Grow Tropicals talks us through his amazing display of rare and intriguing houseplants, with tips for different growing environments. And award-winning young designer Nathan Webster gives us a tour of his Urban Forest design, created to provoke conversation around the importance of woodland management in built up areas. 

Presenter: Gareth Richards, Jenny Laville, Guy Barter

Contributors: Amanda Grimes, Tom Massey, Tinie, Jason Williams, Nathan Webster, Jacob James

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk 

Links: 

The RHS Urban Show 2024

Pop Culture Planting: Punk Rockery

RHS City Spaces: Cloudspaces

Happy Houseplants with Grow Tropicals

RHS Urban Forest

Chase presents: Inspired by the wild with Tom Massey and Tinie 

In the stunning Colour Gardens at The Newt In Somerset, Joe Dransfield explains how a monochrome approach to flowers can deliver dazzling impact. Liz Mooney shares grow your own tips from the World Food Garden at RHS Garden Wisley, including peas, radishes and cardoons. And we hear the inspirational and unconventional story of Roka Brings Flowers – a grower and florist who started a wonderful cut flower business from a narrowboat with a floating greenhouse in tow. 

Presenter: Gareth Richards

Contributors: Liz Mooney, Joe Dransfield, Roka Brings Flowers

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk 

Links: 

How to grow peas

How to grow radishes

Cynara cardunculus Cardoon

The Newt in Somerset – an RHS Partner Garden

Roka Brings Flowers

RHS Urban Show

Desert roadcuts, abandoned pasture, heathland and marshy thickets inspire naturalistic planting ideas from Kevin Philip Williams and Michel Guidi, whose new book Shrouded in Light draws from wild shrubscapes. We also visit RHS Garden Rosemoor in North Devon, where Peter Adams gives us a tour of the extensive fruit and vegetable gardens with top tips for growing parsnips, shallots, cloching potatoes and protecting peas. Jenny Laville and James Armitage return to the podcast to debunk more plant terminology – this time talking about “hybrids” – what they are, how they occur and how they can be used to your advantage. 

Presenter: Gareth Richards

Contributors: Peter Adams, Jenny Laville, James Armitage, Michael Guidi and Kevin Philip Williams 

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk 

Links: 

RHS Garden Rosemoor

How to grow parsnips

How to grow shallots 

How to grow potatoes

F1 Hybrids

Shrouded in Light

Do you ever fall in love with a plant, buy it, but then not know what to pair it with? Principal Horticultural Advisor James Lawrence introduces his guide to creating planting combinations that don’t just look good, but have a sustainability impact too. Guy Barter shares seasonal tips for establishing tomatoes, beetroot, and winter pumpkins and squash – helping you to set up for the Grow Your Own season. And Jack Aldridge, a horticulturist who looks after Oakwood at RHS Garden Wisley, will be singing an ode to his favourite flowering shrub, the Stachyurus. 

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: James Lawrence, Jack Aldridge 

Links: 

Oakwood at RHS Garden Wisley

How to grow tomatoes

How to grow beetroot

How to grow pumpkins

Stachyurus praecox

Stachyurus chinensis

RHS Gardening advice / ChatBotanist

Often referred to as “the greatest living landscape designer” and a leading figure of the New Perennial movement – Piet Oudolf joins curator Matthew Pottage to talk about his new landscape at RHS Garden Wisley. Helen Bostock also introduces the new Bumbles on Blooms project, and the plants you should choose to help support over 250 species of bees in the UK - some with rather particular tastes. Plus, Sam Gallivan, Leader of the Nursery and Propagation team at Wisley talks about propagating plants at scale. 

Presenter: Gareth Richards

Contributors: Matthew Pottage, Piet Oudolf, Helen Bostock, Sam Gallivan

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk 

Links: 

Bumbles on Blooms 

iNaturalist

Oudolf Landscape

Dividing perennials 

Garden designer and writer Ann Treneman shares ideas from her new book RHS Greener Gardening: Containers, explaining how you can create sustainable ecosystems whatever size your space. Jenny Laville speaks with RHS botanist James Armitage to untangle taxonomy, and discuss why plant names keep changing. And Gareth Richards meets David Ford, the holder of the National Plant Collection of Chaenomeles in Surrey, to talk about his love affair with the plant and why they’re due a mainstream revival. 

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: Ann Treneman, Jenny Laville, James Armitage, Gareth Richards, David Ford

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk 

Links:

Greener Gardening Containers

RHS Plant Finder

Plant Heritage: National Plant Collections 

This week Guy Barter and RHS Sustainability Fellow Chloe Sutcliffe react to a recent study published in the journal Nature Cities that claims that urban agriculture has a carbon footprint up to 6 times bigger than conventional agriculture – discussing what this means for allotmenteers and community gardeners, and how we should be thinking about our environmental impact. Entomologist and wasp defender Serian Sumner explains why spring is the perfect time to make peace with yellowjackets, as the queens emerge from hibernation. And the RHS’s Adrian Thorne gives us a practical guide to pruning shrubby hydrangeas. 

Presenter: Gareth Richards

Contributors: Guy Barter, Chloe Sutcliffe, Serian Sumner, Adrian Thorne

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk 

Links:

Nature Cities: Comparing the carbon footprints of urban and conventional agriculture

Endless Forms by Serian Sumner

Shrubby Hydrangeas 

The Garden Magazine

This week, we’re trying to honour March in all its glory. We’re delving into tasty and blight-resistant tomato varieties. We’re exploring how to build and renovate harmonious and colourful borders. And finally, to celebrate International Women’s Day and the 220th anniversary of the RHS, we’re turning back the clock to honour a few of the women who’ve shaped the organisation.

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: Simon Crawford, Susie Pasley-Tyler, Fiona Davison

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk

Links:

How to grow tomatoes

Tomato blight

Gardening with Colour at Coton Manor

An Almost Impossible Thing

This week we’re exploring small but useful nuggets of information that have the potential to change the way we interact with our surroundings this growing season. We’re getting seasonal tips on GYO – things like training and pruning apple trees and preparing allotments for the busiest time of year. And, we’re delving into plant names – and the system behind our classifications. 

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: Andy Lewis, Jenny Laville, James Armitage

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk

Links:

Apples and pears: winter gardening

The Newt in Somerset – an RHS Partner Garden

Allotments: getting started

RHS Practical Latin for Gardeners

Untangling Latin Names

This week, we’re investigating what exactly makes a plant hardy, how tropical plants survive British winters, and the ways in which what thrives here may be changing – especially in urban environments like London. Presenter Gareth Richards and RHS botanist James Armitage take a tour of weird and wacky tender trees that have survived here against all odds. And, Hillary Collins of Grafton Nursery gives us a behind the scenes look at what you can do to help your eucalyptus withstand British winters.

Presenter: Gareth Richards

Contributors: James Armitage and Hilary Collins

Contact: podcasts@rhs.org.uk

Links:

Mediterranean garden plants

RHS hardiness ratings

Hardy Eucalyptus (Grafton Nursery)

This week’s show is all about growing something new. We’re spreading the word about exciting plant species, cultivars, and hybrids from those that love them most. Legendary plantsman Roy Lancaster chats about shrubby honeysuckles, Canadian horticulturist Grahame Ware makes the case for a curious genus called Syneilesis, and Wisley horticulturist Jack Aldridge shares the stories behind flowering dogwood hybrids.

All the stories in this show are based on articles from the March issue of The Plant Review. You can find information on how to subscribe here.

Presenters: Gareth Richards & James Armitage

Contributors: Roy Lancaster, Grahame Ware, and Jack Aldridge

Links:

Shrubby honeysuckle

Flowering dogwood

For this week’s show, we take a behind the scenes look at the ways spring is fighting its way into the picture at RHS Garden Wisley. We go behind the scenes at the Alpine Display House, we get a masterclass on pruning wisteria, and we dive into the life and work of the eccentric and influential horticulturist Ellen Willmott – and explore a theory for why she may have missed her Victoria Medal of Honour ceremony. 

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: Alex Hankey, Matthew Pottage, Suzanne Moss

Links:

Visiting Wisley

Narcissus bulbocodium 

How to get wonderful Wisteria: Buying, planting, pruning and care tips

“Gardens have provided solace, opportunity and inspiration for LGBTQ+ people”

Miss Willmott’s Ghosts: the extraordinary life and gardens of a forgotten genius

In this week’s show, we’re zeroing in on how to stretch the money we spend on our gardens as far as possible. We hear from gardening influencer Anya Lautenbach - aka Anya the Garden Fairy – on her money-saving tips. We explore the science behind cuttings with botanist and editor James Armitage. And we take an inside look at the RHS apprenticeship programme.

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: Anya Lautenbach, James Armitage, Sheila Das, Rory Doyle

Links:

The Money-Saving Gardener

Propagation techniques

New Shoots

RHS Apprenticeships

This week’s show is all about cultivating change – whether in your own garden, in your local neighbourhood, or in a magical National Trust property. We’re chatting guerrilla gardening with Ellen Miles, getting top tips from Wisley advisors, and taking a look at all the work that goes into maintaining the laburnum arch at Bodnant Garden (one of our most beloved partner gardens!)

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: Ellen Miles, James Lawrence, Becky Mealey, Michaela Freed, and Lucy Bidgood

Links:

Guerrilla gardening and reclaiming urban spaces

Get Guerrilla Gardening

Nature is a Human Right

The Laburnum Arch at Bodnant Garden

Horticulture Careers Discovery Week

Diploma in Horticulture Practice

As gardeners, we all have plants we love to hate – think aucubas or heathers. And in winter, especially, it seems that these common but unpopular plants play a really important role in our gardens, adding structure, berries, or cheery variegated leaves when we need it most. So today, we’re addressing the overlooked. We’re giving mahonias a well-deserved second chance. We’re revisiting houseplants, which may or may be looking worse for wear after the chaotic holiday season. And finally, we’re taking a look at the work The Glasshouse, a nursery in Kent, does to give women in prison a fresh start. 

Presenter: Gareth Richards

Contributors: Jack Aldridge, Tony Le-Britton, The Glasshouse Team

Contact us at podcasts@rhs.org.uk

Links:

Mahonia

Not Another Jungle: Comprehensive Care for Extraordinary Houseplants

Growing hope and houseplants in prison

The Glasshouse

We’re past the solstice, so it’s time to both revel in the present and prepare for what's to come as the days get longer and warmer. So, in this week’s show, we’re doing exactly that, taking note of winter wins – like winter-flowering camellias and snowdrops– and addressing RHS members’ questions as we look ahead to the growing season to come.

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: Jack Aldridge, Naomi Slade, James Lawrence, Becky Mealey, Michaela Freed

Links:

Autumn and winter-flowering camellias

RHS The Winter Garden 

Wisteria: pruning

Snowdrops

To start off the new year right, we decided to begin with a practical and sustainable guide on what you can get up to outdoors this year – it’s what we’re calling a sustainability health check for the garden. We’ll be chatting about the state of play on peat-free growing, hearing from a range of RHS experts for some top garden sustainability tips, and exploring the future of grow-your-own in our ever-changing climate.

Links:

Peat-free gardening

Peat- free nurseries

10 ways to be more sustainable in your garden

Edible: 70 Sustainable Plants That Are Changing How We Eat

For our final episode of 2023, we’re taking a look back at some of our favourite moments on the podcast and across the RHS from the year, exploring emerging trends, new beginnings, and time-honoured advice. Stay tuned for highlights from Director General Clare Matterson, Head of Editorial Tom Howard, Head of Libraries and Exhibitions Fiona Davison, and more. 

Presenters: Gareth Richards & Guy Barter

Contributors: Clare Matterson, Tom Howard, Fiona Davison, Jenny Laville, and Jenny Bowden

Links:

Rewilding Small Spaces

The Winter Garden

Maximising Minimal Space

As we approach the most festive time of year, we’ve decided to share a recipe for a plant-filled Christmas. In this episode, we’ll be returning to Bristol with Naomi Slade to hear how she decks her halls with things from the garden. We’ll then be making our way to the Frenchay Christmas Tree Farm to get a feel for life at the busiest point in their calendar. And finally, we’re exploring the curious world of parasitic plants, including a festive favourite: mistletoe.

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: Naomi Slade, Simon Maughan, Alex Summers

Links:

RHS The Winter Garden

Frenchay Christmas Tree Farm

How to grow your own mistletoe

Christmas with the RHS

This week, we’re wrapping up warm and heading out into our gardens to take a moment to really appreciate our garden birds. Wildlife sound recordist Gary Moore gives us a masterclass on recognising the calls of common birds at this time of year. Writer and wildlife gardening guru Kate Bradbury shares her top tips for making a bird-friendly garden. And finally, we delve into the story behind the remarkable number of American songbirds that made it across the Atlantic this autumn. 

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: Gary Moore, Kate Bradbury, and Rob Jaques

Links:

Birds in your garden

Plants for birds

RHS Wildlife Gardening for everyone and everything, 

RHS How to Create a Wildlife Pond

Garden BirdWatch

BTO’s BirdTrack Migration Blog

Weeds have many faces. They feed birds, butterflies, bees, and the like. They spread like wildfire, but are resilient. They compete with crops, yet can add colour and beauty at times when our gardens feel lacklustre. They’re complicated – and the way we regard them, even more so. So, in today's show, we’re taking a holistic look at the weeds in our gardens – discussing what constitutes a weed, how to deal with them safely, and how we can see them as more than the enemy. Chief horticulturist Guy Barter chats about this upcoming book What’s That Weed?, the students who brought together Wisley’s ‘What is a Weed?’ exhibition share their perspectives on these rapid spreaders, and finally, author Ann Treneman gives her advice on creating weed containers. 

Presenter: Gareth Richards

Contributors: Guy Barter, Ann Treneman, Students from St John the Baptist School

Links:

RHS Weeds: The beauty and uses of 50 vagabond plants

Identify common weeds

Controlling Weeds

Exhibition: What is a weed?

With the first cold snap hitting the UK this past week, it’s really starting to feel like winter. It’s a time of structural beauty, of evergreen supremacy, of frosty seedheads, and of low but magical light. So this week, we’re focusing in on all the mystery and enchantment of a winter garden. We’re chatting with author Naomi Slade about designing and revamping gardens in the colder months, leaning into year-round grow-your-own with garden manager Sheila Das, and exploring how to bring a bit of the winter charm inside with what’s available now to pick. 

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: Naomi Slade, Sheila Das, Gareth Richards, Hazel Gardiner, and Shane Connolly

Links:

RHS The Winter Garden

Vegetables: growing for winter

Winter Flowers Week

It’s that time of year again… Our annual book special is here! Today, Helen Griffin, RHS Book Publishing Manager, chats with Fiona Davidson, Guy Barter, and Arthur Parkinson about their top gardening book picks of 2023. Tune in for a discussion on the future of GYO and resilient planting, the relevance of gardening history, and wildcard topics like cut flowers, winter gardening, and yes, even murder. 

Presenter: Helen Griffin

Contributors: Fiona Davidson, Guy Barter, Arthur Parkinson, and Matt Pottage

Books Discussed:

• Botany of the Kitchen Garden by Helena Dove
• Rekha’s Kitchen Garden: Seasonal Produce and Home-Grown Wisdom from One Gardener’s Allotment Year by Rekha Mistry
• RHS The Winter Garden by Naomi Slade
• England’s Gardens: A Modern History by Stephen Parker
• Gardening can be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers by Marta McDowell
• Not Another Jungle: Comprehensive Care for Extraordinary Houseplants by Tony Le Britton
• Chatsworth: The gardens and the people who made them by Alan Titchmarsh
• A Year Full of Veg: A Harvest for All Seasons by Sarah Raven
• The Cut Flower Sourcebook by Rachel Siegfried

As the surrounding world starts looking a little bleaker, we’ve decided to explore how to best turn our homes into verdant oases. RHS Digital Editor Jenny Laville chats with Gareth Richards about the best low-maintenance houseplants, fun climbers for indoors, and underrated care tips and tricks. Social historian Catherine Horwood regales us with the history of ever-changing houseplant trends. And finally, author and podcaster Alice Vincent reveals the role houseplants played in her own gardening journey.

Presenters: Gareth Richards and Jenny Laville

Contributors: Catherine Horwood and Alice Vincent

Links:

Picking the right houseplant

Houseplants for different locations

Houseplants for students

Potted History: How Houseplants Took Over Our Homes

Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival

Rootbound: Rewilding a Life

This week, we’re journeying back through time, taking stock of a few significant moments in botanical history. We’re unravelling their mysteries, considering their reverberations, and imagining what this all might mean for the future. We're starting with a tale on the first flowering of the giant waterlily in cultivation, then discovering how ‘Midwinter Fire’ gave Cornus sanguinea a whole new reputation, and finally, we're taking a look at the life and legacy of Arthur Bulley, founder of Ness Botanic Gardens. Each of these stories draws inspiration from articles in the December issue of The Plant Review.

The Plant Review

RHS A Plant for Every Day of the Year

Foggy Bottom: A Garden to Share

Ness Botanic Gardens

This week, we journey through RHS Garden Wisley, capturing some of its autumnal beauty while also looking ahead as winter edges ever closer. Garden Manager Sheila Das chats with us about her no-dig journey, entomologist Dr. Seirian Sumner fills us in on wasps’ winter preparation, and finally, Wisley advisors provide a seasonal Q&A. 

Links:

How to grow a No-Dig Garden

How to improve your soil with the ‘No Dig’ technique

Endless Forms: Why We Should Love Wasps

Leafmould

Mulches and mulching

Preventing winter damage

Autumn-interest shrubs

This month – October – is UK Black History Month – and the theme for 2023 is “Saluting our Sisters,” highlighting the influence Black women have had in shaping history and inspiring change. So for today’s show, we’re exploring a few of the extraordinary stories of Black women gardeners who’ve made and continue to make a difference in the world of horticulture — all while looking ahead to what we can do to create a more equitable future. Award-winning garden designer Juliet Sargeant is sharing the stories behind her designs. We’re getting a look at the life and work of Mrs Annie Vann Reid – an American nurserywoman who built a plant empire almost 100 years ago. And, finally, we’re chatting with floral artist Hazel Gardiner about making an impact through plants. 

Links:

The history of Black British gardeners is one of resistance

The Garden History Podcast

A Short History of Flowers

Juliet Sargeant: Gardens & Landscapes

Hazel Gardiner Design

This week, with all the glorious leaf colour on display, we’re exploring the entangled wonder of the arboreal world, getting a behind the scenes look at what trees are up to now and chatting about how best to incorporate them within our gardens. Renowned nurseryman Nick Dunn is back on the podcast to talk crab apples. Silvologist and author Dr Gabriel Hemery is lifting the veil on what exactly is happening with trees at this time of year. And finally, garden designer Arit Anderson and scientist Dr Henrik Sjoman discuss what to keep in mind when choosing what to plant.

Links:

RHS guide to trees

RHS The Garden Magazine

The Tree Almanac 2024

The Essential Tree Selection Guide

It’s no secret our living spaces are getting smaller. As more and more of us move to urban areas, we’re often having to put up with tight quarters – living in tiny flats with limited outdoor space. So in this episode, we want to explore how to maximise the space you do have – getting the best out of whatever garden, patio, porch, or windowbox you can access. Award-winning garden designer Tony Woods gives us a front garden masterclass. We’re then chatting with journalist and gardener Ann Treneman about creating fetching winter containers. And finally, Fiona Davison, our head of Libraries and Exhibitions, is back to tell the story of an early city gardener – and what we can learn from his 18th century ideas.

Links:

RHS Big Ideas, Small Spaces

Garden Club London

RHS Urban Show

Growing plants in containers 

Thomas Fairchild: The first city gardener?

This Saturday – 7 October – is UK Fungus Day. And so for this week’s show, we’re exploring the fascinating faces of fungi. We’re taking a tour of the Fungus Garden at RHS Wisley, journeying back in time with biologist Merlin Sheldrake to investigate our historical uses of these organisms, chatting about 3 easy ways you can grow your own edible mushrooms, and finally, we’re returning to Wisley to get an update on the science team’s honey fungus research. 

The music you hear at the very beginning of the show was created by Cosmo Sheldrake. The sounds you hear -- apart from the accompanying piano -- are from recordings of oyster mushrooms devouring a copy of Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life. You can listen to the entire song here.

Links:

Saprotrophic fungi

Mycorrhizal fungi

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures

Rebel Gardening: A Beginner’s Handbook to Creating an Organic Urban Garden

Honey Fungus: identifying mushrooms

10 fun facts about fungi

We’ve passed the autumn equinox and officially entered harvest season. It’s time to pick apples, pears, and autumn-fruiting raspberries, harvest squashes, beetroot, aubergines, leeks, and much, much more. And, of course, what we can grow and how crops perform is changing. As our climate becomes more unpredictable and more extreme, some of our go-to classics are no longer shoe-in wins. So, this week, we want to honour the harvest season, while also exploring what it means to grow food resiliently – and in a way that benefits both our gardens and our stomachs. We’re stopping by RHS Garden Wisley’s impressive pumpkin patch, discussing the connection between our soil and gut microbiome with Garden Manager Sheila Das, and exploring unusual but sustainable crops that could be staples in the years to come*. 

Links:

Pumpkins and winter squashes: storing

Festival of Flavours

Vegetables: growing for winter

Edible: 70 Sustainable Plants That Are Changing How We Eat

*Please note, when foraging, never eat a plant if you aren’t 100% certain of its identification, and check before harvesting that doing so is legal where you are. Follow the Countryside Code and only pick as much as you will use.

Soil is the backbone of our gardens. A healthy soil means happier plants, higher crop yields, and greater biodiversity. So, this week, as we begin laying out our deliciously rich compost with fervour, we’ve decided to dive deep into what makes for top-notch, productive soil. We’re starting with a masterclass on composting in colder months. Then, we’re turning to the science of eco-acoustics – and how the sounds worms and other invertebrates make can give us insight into the state of our soil health. And finally, we’re myth-busting! Electroculture gardening is everywhere on social media these days, but is it actually worth your while?

Links:

How to care for your soil

Composting through the winter

Earthworms

Soil types

With the release of Fiona Davison’s new book – An Almost Impossible Thing: The Radical Lives of Britain’s Pioneering Women Gardeners – we decided to dedicate this week’s show week’s show to women in the garden. And in that vein, we’re exploring the potential for gardens to be empowering, educational, equalising, and radical spaces. Fiona shares a story from her book about two women from over 100 years ago who show that the roots of ecological gardening run further back then we may realise. Psychotherapist, writer, and gardener Marchelle Farrell reveals how her English country garden helped her get to the core of a question that had troubled her throughout her life: What is home? And finally, garden historian Twigs Way joins us again to give the inside scoop on an early and influential gardening school for women. But, If you’re looking for more advice-oriented content – fear not! Throughout the programme, we’re giving story-specific gardening tips. 

An Almost Impossible Thing: The Radical Lives of Britain’s Pioneering Women Gardeners

Uprooting: From the Caribbean to the Countryside – Finding Home in an English Country Garden

Vine Weevils

Autumn-interest shrubs

Study & Learn at the RHS

Now that it’s September, we’ve officially entered bulb-planting season. It’s time to get things like daffodils, alliums, crocuses and hyacinths into the ground. So, with that in mind, we’ve put together a bulb deep dive – with a strong emphasis on those golden classics, narcissi. In the episode, we travel to Lindley Library to get the backstory of daffodils’ long history of cultivation, chat with TV horticulturist and daff-lover Camilla Bassett-Smith about her favourite varieties, catch a tutorial on naturalising narcissi in the landscape, and then finally, check in with Michael Perry (aka Mr Plant Geek) on all that’s trending with bulbs this year.

Links:

Visit the RHS Lindley Library

A Host of Golden Daffodils: The story of a springtime favourite

How to grow daffodils

Bulbs: naturalising

Perhaps nowhere do we face the realities of life and death more frequently and intimately than we do within the garden. We witness a cycle of growth, dieback, and rebirth on a seasonal, weekly, and even daily basis. And so, as we once again inch closer to a new season – to autumn, a time of abundance, growth, but also, let’s face it, decay – we’ve decided to take a deeper look at what gardens and our beloved flora can reveal about both life and death. We’ll hear from Dr. Ross Cameron about his 2023 release How Plants Can Save Your Life, get a behind-the-scenes peek at the field of forensic botany, travel to The Poison Garden in Alnwick to learn about their pernicious new addition, and finally, take a second look at the life cycle of wasps.

Warning: This episode contains a story about police investigations into death, murder and suicide. Listener discretion is advised.

Links:

Gardening for Health and Wellbeing

How Plants Can Save Your Life

Murder Most Florid: Inside the Mind of a Forensic Botanist

Mark Spencer's Lindley Late Lecture

The Alnwick Garden

Endless Forms: Why We Should Love Wasps

With autumn drawing closer and closer, we’re exploring late summer gardens – with all their lushness, colour, and vibrancy — and considering what we can get up to in the garden now to set us up well for the next year. We visit RHS Garden Wisley to take a look at their seed collection process – and get their tips for how to replicate this all at home. We chat with kitchen gardener and food writer Kathy Slack about how we can get the best out of the fruit and veg we’ve grown this summer. And finally, garden historian Twigs Way joins us again to share the second part of her allotment series all about their history from the early 1900s until today. 

Links:

RHS Members’ Seed Scheme

RHS Grow Your Own

From the Veg Patch

Tales from the Veg Patch Newsletter

Festival of Flavours

Allotments

Today’s show focuses on specific ways we can rewild gardens. We’re exploring how we can intervene in space spaces to create dynamic habitats – without using herds of free-roaming animals. Isabella Tree, co-author of The Book of Wilding and one of the foremost rewilding experts in the UK, chats about her own experiences rewilding her estate and her top tips for getting into a wilder mindset. We’re then shifting gears a bit – turning away from specific practices, to look at some of the fauna pivotal to our natural ecosystems. We visit RHS Garden Wisley to hear the curious case of the roman snail colony there. And finally, we catch up with Lloyd of the Flies Creator Matt Walker and RHS Entomologist Andy Salisbury to learn about the new family-friendly insect trails across all of our gardens. 

Links:

The Book of Wilding

Roman Snails at Wisley

Summer holiday fun at RHS Gardens

It’s National Allotment Week – a time to celebrate our country’s vast network of allotment plots and re-invest in our own dedication to growing fruit and veg. So for this week’s show, we’re taking a wander through a variety of allotments, getting a behind-the-scenes look at the techniques growers use to get the best out of their crops and examining the ways allotments help us better connect to the food we eat. We return to RHS Chief Horticulturist Guy Barter’s allotment in Surrey, where he shares this season’s successes and failures. We stop by RHS Garden Wisley’s Student and Community allotments to have a look at the different approaches taken there. And finally, we get the history of how allotments became commonplace here in the UK from garden historian and writer Twigs Way.

Links:

Allotment: getting started

Grow Your Own Advice

Tomato blight

Allotments by Twigs Way

With the grand opening of Wisley’s Orchid House this past month and the publication of The Orchid Review – our annual orchid yearbook – within reach, we thought it the perfect time for another Orchid Special. In this week’s show, we chat with Julian Shaw, who heads the International Orchid Register, Reshma Lobo, a London-based jewel orchid grower, Art Chadwick who breeds the cattleyas named for American First Ladies, and Kevin Wigley, who’s transformed a room in his house into an orchid sanctuary.

Links:

The Orchid Review

The International Orchid Register

Ugly Plantling

Chadwick & Sons

The Orchid Committee

Now that it’s late July and the whole family’s around, we thought it the perfect time to explore gardening with kids and to reflect on our own memories of growing up in gardens, allotments, and parks. We visit the Hitchin Youth Allotment – Paul Dee, the founder, will share the story of the project as well as his top tips for growing fruit and veg with kids. Afterwards Fiona Davison, RHS Head of Libraries and Exhibitions, recounts the constantly evolving history of the role that children have played in our gardens – and how this relates to societal and cultural shifts. And finally Roy Lancaster, renowned plantsman and broadcaster, divulges the tale of the epic plant discovery he made as a young boy in Lancashire. A discovery that propelled him into the world of horticulture. 

Links:

RHS Campaign for School Gardening

The Garden Magazine

Hitchin Youth Allotment

Growing Up in the Garden Exhibition

RHS Flower Show Tatton Park is finally here! And we’re taking you on a tour of some of the highlights. We’re speaking with young designers like Camellia Hayes and Nathan Webster, exploring the new Sensory Long Border displays, and taking in the extraordinary RHS Nocturnal Pollinator Experience. But that’s not all! Because it’s the final flower show we’re covering on the podcast this summer, we’re putting all the emerging trends we’ve noticed at Tatton in context with themes from the other shows we’ve covered this year. 

Links:

Discover RHS Flower Show Tatton Park

Seeking Resilience Garden

Sensory Long Borders

RHS Nocturnal Pollinator Experience

Off the Grid Garden

This week, we’ll be exploring a few of our cultivated genera and species that, for a variety of reasons, have gone out of style. We’ll hear about Plant Heritage’s Threatened Plant of the Year competition, take you to the beautiful garden of horticultural legend Roy Lancaster to get a tour of his most-cherished aucubas, chat with Wisley curator Matthew Pottage on why we should give Parthenocissus a chance, and finally, take a trip down memory lane with author Naomi Slade. Naomi will be telling us all about the history of the lilac’s bumpy ride in the popularity stakes. 

Links:

The Plant Review

Plant Heritage

RHS’s National Plant Collections

Lilacs: Beautiful Varieties for Home and Garden

It’s the 30th anniversary of the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival and it’s looking better than ever. There’s a magnificent Floral Marquee filled with displays from over 80 nurseries, a Festival of Roses boasting several exciting new cultivars, models of allotment growing, creative show gardens, and star-studded talks all week long – to name but a few of the features that make this festival an annual favourite among gardeners. For this week’s episode, we’re bringing you the highlights. We’re chatting with imaginative designers like Zoe Claymore and Jo Thompson, and we’re taking you inside the Floral Marquee and Festival of Roses to get advice from the UK’s best nurseries.

Links:

RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 

RHS Wildlife Garden

The Wildlife Trusts: Renters’ Retreat

David Austin Roses

The Harkness Rose Company