Horticulture Week Podcast
169 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 days ago -Welcome to the Horticulture Week Podcast where we bring you news and views on the most important topics of the day for UK horticulture professionals. For more visit https://www.hortweek.co.uk/podcasts.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Homepage Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
ICL: all about biostimulants in horticulture
April 26, 2024 08:18 - 16 minutes - 23 MBBiostimulants and legislation is the topic for this week's podcast with ICL. ICL's Sam Rivers says there is confusion about what biostimulants are: micro-organisms that when applied to plants stimulate natural processes. They are not replacements for nutrition or IPM but can help overcome issues in plant production. Different types of biostimulants include beneficial bacteria and fungi, seaweed, humic and brewer's yeast-based products and many more; they are described as multivitamins for ...
Fargro's Richard Hopkins on drones, sustainability and fairness in the supply chain
April 25, 2024 13:16 - 19 minutes - 26.9 MBThe second part of this conversation with Fargro's managing director, explores drones, sustainability and fairness in the supply chain. Fargro's interest in drones is part of a number of projects on data-driven decision-making for protected horticulture "to try and give a holistic view for agronomists and growers so they actually get some actionable insights" to help them prioritise their activities. Hopkins talks about the shortage of agronomists and how they are trying to attract a new g...
Careers in the agritech and hortitech industries with Oli Hilbourne of Outfield
April 19, 2024 08:26 - 22 minutes - 25.8 MBHortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation and sponsors MorePeople. At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available. Hear from people who have found their way into their chosen career through different paths, what their job involves and what it means to them. Oli Hilb...
A career in the agritech and hortitech industries with plant pathologist, Laura Bouvet
April 12, 2024 08:17 - 18 minutes - 20.9 MBHortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation and sponsors MorePeople. At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available. This week Neville Stein speaks to plant pathologist, Laura Bouvet, the Knowledge and Innovation Facilitator for Agr-TechE. She works with farmers to s...
Fargro's Richard Hopkins on crop protection, peat, water and trade policy
April 05, 2024 09:05 - 19 minutes - 26.9 MBFargro managing director Richard Hopkins speaks to HortWeek about spring optimism, the upcoming general election and peat, water, border inspections and crop protection. He says growers should talk to policymakers using policy asks from the HTA, AIC and NFU. Key issues are peat, plant health, plant protection products and water. On crop protection he says there is still no National Action Plan and why that is significant. He says he would like CRD to be an "enabler" so the industry can use...
Careers in the landscape industries with industry heavyweight and APL general manager, Phil Tremayne
March 28, 2024 11:43 - 18 minutes - 25.9 MBHortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation and sponsors MorePeople. At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available. Hear from people who have found their way into their chosen career through different paths, what their job involves and what it means to them. This wee...
ICL - all about water quality
March 28, 2024 09:17 - 13 minutes - 18.9 MBICL's Sam Rivers discusses the key issue of water quality with HortWeek editor Matt Appleby. We discover why water quality is so important and what characteristics you look at to determine water quality. Sam gives vital information on how you determine your water chemical properties and why is conductivity so important. He also relays important insight about pH, including the main differences between growing media pH and water pH. Sam gives us the lowdown on the main considerations when ...
Careers in the landscape industries with APL WorldSkills gold medal-winning landscaper Anna Mcloughlin
March 22, 2024 08:30 - 16 minutes - 22.3 MBHortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation and sponsors MorePeople. At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available. Hear from people who have found their way into their chosen career through different paths, what their job involves and what it means to them. This wee...
Leading growers Stefano Sogni of Zelari and Kyle Ross of Wyevale Nurseries on the Four Oaks Trade Show 2024
March 12, 2024 10:22 - 17 minutes - 23.4 MBFour Oaks Trade Show is the UK’s leading international exhibition for the whole of commercial horticulture. From production to point-of-sale, the breadth of exhibits on display is the show’s strength, attracting a broad visitor base. The event takes place on a 23-acre nursery site in Cheshire UK, close to the Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope, covering an area of 13,000m² under glass with additional outdoor areas. The 52nd show takes place this September 3rd & 4th and organisers urge potential ...
The future of green jobs with Billy Knowles of the Youth Environmental Service
March 08, 2024 11:00 - 18 minutes - 25 MBThe Youth Environmental Service, which is backed by the National Heritage Lottery Fund, has won backing for a 'national service' for the environment. Dubbed a "green jobs guarantee" for a post-secondary school-age young people. Programme director Billy Knowles explains: "The Youth Environmental Service is an organisation that we set up with the idea that what would happen if every young person had the opportunity to do a year of paid environmental work. "It's a great way to give something...
ICL on vine weevil control
February 28, 2024 16:58 - 16 minutes - 22.7 MBVine Weevil control is one of the biggest issues for many growers and ICL deals with many queries about the pest. In this podcast, ICL's Sam Rivers explains what vine weevil is, what the pest's life cycle is and what plants they feed on. He highlights their effect on heuchera, primula and Portugese laurel. Control options start with cultural control. Products available for vine weevil control include nematodes and Lalguard. Rivers explains how these work and gives tips and advice on applic...
Make Parks Sexy Again! - the joy of parks with Paul Rabbitts
February 23, 2024 09:51 - 30 minutes - 41.3 MBVeteran, and very proud 'Parkie' Paul Rabbitts (currently working at Norwich City Council) fell into parks work after qualifying as a "really bad" landscape architect. Finding "everything was going down the route of being computer aided design and CAD - that sent a cold shiver down my back" he thought "I don't want to do this...which is one of the reasons why I moved into managing parks. Thank God!" His latest tome, People's Parks: the Design and Development of Victorian Parks in Britain,...
The potential and limitations of Biodiversity Net Gain with landscape architect Alexandra Steed
February 16, 2024 09:21 - 32 minutes - 44.4 MBThe requirement for developers to implement minimum Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) standards became law on 12 February, and having already worked on projects this week's Horticulture Week Podcast guest already has considerable experience in the field. Although Alexandra Steed was speaking from Vancouver for the podcast recording, her landscape practice is based in London and South East England. Highlights include developing green and blue landscape infrastructure strategies for South Essex Est...
Plant Collection holder Jonathan Sheppard takes his 'hobby' to Chelsea Flower Show
February 09, 2024 09:42 - 25 minutes - 35.5 MBFormer corporate lobbyist/political adviser Jonathan Shepherd is tentatively "proud to be called a bit of a horticulturist". But horticulturist he very much is. The National Plant Collection holder is a veteran of Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in 2022 and 2023 where he won silver gilt for his Cosmos collection display (he also has a hollyhock national collection). In 2024, he makes his exhibiting debut at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. So with all the work of growing and nurturing some 3,000 ...
Lee Stiles of Lea Valley Growers' Association warns about potential 2024 salad shortages
February 02, 2024 09:46 - 21 minutes - 28.9 MBLee Stiles, Lea Valley Growers' Association secretary, has been outspoken about the state of the UK protected salads sector, which saw market failure in 2023, with empty supermarket shelves and reduction in UK production. Stiles sees energy, labour and prices as the big three problems facing UK tomato and cucumber growers. Until recent years energy and labour were more controllable, he says, but those factors have fallen away and now "price is king", regardless of anything else. Government ...
A life in professional gardening with Alan Mason of the Professional Gardeners Guild
January 26, 2024 10:00 - 25 minutes - 35.2 MBGarden designer and professional gardener Alan Mason was a founder member of the Professional Gardeners’ Guild. He became chairman 45 years later, taking over from Tony Arnold in September 2022. "I avoided being chairman for as long as possible", he says. " I was vice chairman. I had been treasurer. I had been secretary, but it was never my desire to become chairman. It just happened." He has enjoyed the support of the "fabulous team" on the committee around him and says "in the last 12 mo...
Why horticulture should get on board with the benefits of horticulture therapy with Annabelle Padwick
January 19, 2024 09:50 - 20 minutes - 28.7 MBAnnabelle Padwick is a professional gardener, well-being practitioner and founder of Life at No.27. Her first experience of horticulture was growing on her allotment in 2015. She was having psychotherapy at the time and "hoping that I could learn some new skills, but also [hoping] it might help with my mental health at the same time". She soon quit her marketing career and founded her social enterprise CIC organization, Life at No 27 which supports children and adults from as young as fiv...
Confessions of a landscape gardener with Alan Sargent
January 12, 2024 08:59 - 25 minutes - 34.4 MBLandscape industry veteran of 53 years, there's little Alan Sargent hasn't seen when it comes to landscape and garden projects. And now he's decided to write some of the more curious, humourous and even scandalous ones in his latest book, "Confessions of a Landscape Gardener". With a career spanning 5 decades, he reflects on how his stories take readers back to a time pre-internet, pre mobiles, even pre-telephone! So part of the challenge of relating the stories was "trying to describe to s...
TV Garden Ninja Lee Burkhill on passing on garden knowledge
January 05, 2024 08:45 - 21 minutes - 29.2 MBGarden designer Lee Burkhill - better known as the Garden Ninja - is a career changer (from law in an IT setting). After a part-time RHS garden design course (which he thought of as a passtime), couple of competitions and RHS shows later, his career took off, "like being strapped to a rocket! "I suppose it has been incredibly rapid compared to people that maybe went to horticultural college or university to study design. But having said that, it really feels to me like it was always my pas...
Growing and selling plants with Sue Beesley of Bluebell Cottage Gardens
December 22, 2023 08:00 - 24 minutes - 34 MBSue Beesley is owner of Bluebell Cottage Gardens and nursery in Cheshire. She grows and propagates 700 different perennials at the nursery which she took over in 2007. From an IT background Sue came into horticulture "as a complete amateur" at the age of 45. "I think one of the great things about horticulture is it's a fabulous industry for people to come into as a second, third or even fourth career", she says. The nursery, which works in tandem with the gardens and a tea room, sells pla...
A career in garden management with Beechgrove's Scott Smith
December 14, 2023 14:19 - 19 minutes - 21.8 MBHortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation. At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available. This week HortWeek writer and business consultant Neville Stein interviews Scott Smith, head gardener at Beechgrove and presenter on BBC Scotland to talk about his career path ...
A career in botanical garden management with RBG Edinburgh's Raoul Curtis-Machin
December 08, 2023 09:41 - 18 minutes - 21.4 MBHortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation. At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available. Hear from people who have found their way into their chosen career through different paths, what their job involves and what it means to them. This week we focus on botanical ...
Careers in garden retail with Steve Barrow of British Garden Centres
December 01, 2023 08:46 - 12 minutes - 14.2 MBHortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation and sponsors MorePeople. At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available. Hear Steve Barrow, plantarea manager at British Garden Centres. He talks to HortWeek writer and business consultant Neville Stein about what his job inv...
Careers in garden retail with Liam Beddall of David Austin Roses
November 24, 2023 08:21 - 23 minutes - 27.1 MBHortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation and sponsors MorePeople. At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available. Business consultant and HortWeek writer Neville Stein interviews Liam Beddall, senior rose consultant at David Austin Roses. He talks about how he was a...
Horticultural education options with Lucy Lewis of Sparsholt College
November 17, 2023 09:51 - 19 minutes - 22.2 MBHortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation and sponsors MorePeople. At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available. HortWeek writer and business consultant Neville Stein interviews Lucy Lewis, horticultural lecturer at Sparsholt College, about the courses they offer a...
Horticultural education with RHS horticultural courses officer Sarah Hale
November 10, 2023 08:30 - 21 minutes - 25 MBHortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation and sponsors MorePeople. At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available. Hear from people who have found their way into their chosen career through different paths, what their job involves and what it means to them. This wee...
A career in plant breeding - with Simon Crawford of Burpee
October 19, 2023 14:42 - 17 minutes - 20 MBHortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation. At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available. We hear from people who have found their way into their chosen career through different paths, what their job involves and what it means to them. Every two weeks, for the next...
A career in plant breeding with Tim Kerley of Kerley & Co
October 19, 2023 13:06 - 17 minutes - 20 MBHortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation. At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available. We hear from people who have found their way into their chosen career through different paths, what their job involves and what it means to them. Every two weeks, for the next...
A horticultural destiny and the power of positivity, with Beechcroft Gardens' head gardener and TV presenter, Scott Smith
October 19, 2023 11:32 - 46 minutes - 63.4 MBHead gardener Scott Smith is one of a growing number of horticulturists-turned TV stars as co-presenter Beechgrove Garden for the BBC. Smith explains how the show works and the challenges of keeping the garden shipshape around the filming schedule for the show, which includes the 'Back to Basics' feature helping gardeners demystify some of the projects shown on TV shows and to produce features in their own garden. "You don't actually see [on garden makeover shows] how they do it...the thin...
The National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, with landscape architect Tom La Dell
October 13, 2023 07:45 - 24 minutes - 33.4 MBLandscape architect and trustee of Brogdale Collections Tom La Dell discovered very early in his career, a passion for, and conviction in the importance of ecology in landscape architecture schemes. Brought up with artistic background, he was more interested in breeding plants and after a botany degree did his post graduate in landscape architecture which enabled him to combine his interest in ecology and design: "Particularly now, we're in a sort of 'disaster zone' of biodiversity and pos...
ICL on Lalguard M52 GR – the new bioinsecticide for vine weevil control
October 06, 2023 08:00 - 12 minutes - 23.7 MBSam Rivers of ICL talks to HortWeek editor Matt Appleby about new vine weevil control product Lalguard. They discuss how Lalguard works, what its ingredients are, and how to use the product. Lalguard works in an IPM plan and Rivers details how to include the product in integrated pest management and what plan support ICL has available. Vine weevils are one of the most problematic pests ornamentals growers face and since the withdrawal of Exemptor, many growers have relied on nematodes to co...
The hidden biodiversity of moss with Dr Neil Bell of RBG Edinburgh
September 29, 2023 08:06 - 36 minutes - 49.5 MBDr Neil Bell is a bryologist at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Much of his research is focused on quantifying, understanding and promoting Scotland’s globally important bryophyte flora, of which mosses are part (along with liverworts and hornworts). This year is a big year for the bryophyte world: the British Bryology Society celebrates its centenary and in tandem Neil has published his book, The Hidden World of Mosses (published by RGB Edinburgh) which, with the help of exquisite phot...
Unearthing the female pioneers of professional gardening with Fiona Davison
September 22, 2023 08:08 - 22 minutes - 31.2 MBThere are a few well-known Edwardian lady gardeners - Gertrude Jekyll, Ellen Wilmot are two. They tended to be wealthy and able to forge their trade in their own large gardens. "Less well known are the professional gardeners and particularly women professional gardeners", says Fiona Davison, the head of libraries and exhibitions at the RHS. While looking for stories of gardeners at RHS Garden Wisley, she "uncovered a bundle of letters in the Lindley Library... [telling of a woman] claiming...
Reinventing Borde Hill with Jay Goddard and Harry Baldwin
September 15, 2023 10:51 - 38 minutes - 52.3 MBThis week Rachael Forsyth speaks to Borde Hill's managing director Jay Goddard, and head of horticulture Harry Baldwin. Borde Hill, a country garden set with in 383 acres of heritage-listed parkland in West Sussex is celebrating its 130th anniversary. Jay is the fifth generation of the Stevenson-Clark familly and she spent an her childhood in that idyllic setting. After a period away during which she developed a career in corporate PR and marketing, she has moved back to the estate with he...
Reviving Blenheim Palace gardens to create 'The English Versailles'! - with head gardener Andy Mills
September 08, 2023 10:43 - 30 minutes - 41.6 MBThis week we welcome Blenheim Palace head gardener Andy Mills to the Horticulture Week Podcast. A year into the role, Andy says he is still getting his bearings with the garden: "A place as diverse as Blenheim takes quite a while to get your head around - ask me the same question in about 3-5 years!" Andy is merging hands-on gardening with garden history in his role at Blenheim, with plans to restore and transform the Formal Gardens, which aims to reinstate many of features and elements wh...
How comfortable is the outdoor furniture market? with Andy Baxter of Maze
August 30, 2023 17:28 - 13 minutes - 18.1 MBThe guest on this week's Horticulture Week Podcast is Andy Baxter of outdoor furniture supplier, Maze. Managing director since early 2021, Andy has had to navigate the firm through a particularly tumultuous time with containers prices hitting record highs and lockdowns in China halting supply. Sterling "has been a challenge", Andy says. "At the moment, it's looking quite good. Not necessarily on the strength of the pound, more the weakness of the dollar. But yeah, it's looking positive, wh...
Predicting and protecting plant futures with RBG Kew's Richard Barley and Rebecca Lane
August 25, 2023 09:15 - 35 minutes - 48.5 MBThis week RBG Kew's director of gardens Richard Barley and arboretum supervisor Rebecca Lane join the Horticulture Week Podcast. Kew has changed a lot over the last 10 years, including the introducing the Great Broadwalk Borders, the Children's Garden, Agius Evolution Garden, "reinvigorating" the Kitchen and Winter gardens, plus and the restoration of the Temperate House. These days a visitor coming to Kew today might say "there's a bit more obvious horticulture and perhaps a bit more of a...
Ben Goldsmith: influential Conservative environmentalist on rewilding, garden centres and policy
August 15, 2023 09:19 - 29 minutes - 66.5 MBFinancier and environmentalist Ben Goldsmith joins the HortWeek podcast. He was a Defra non-executive board member from 2018-22, where he was involved in the Environmental Land Management scheme, the Nature for Climate Fund and the Species Reintroductions task force. Goldsmith is chair of the influential Conservative Environment Network. His new book is titled God Is An Octopus: Loss, Love and a Calling to Nature an inspiring story of finding comfort and strength in nature after suffering...
Safeguarding plant histories and plant futures with Gill Groombridge of Plant Heritage
August 08, 2023 14:34 - 19 minutes - 26.6 MBThis week Plant Heritage business manager at Plant Heritage Gill Groombridge joins the Horticulture Week Podcast She reports on her highlights from the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show (July 2023) which included displays focusing on the history of Plant Heritage's collections over 5 decades as part of its 45th anniversary celebrations. They announced the winner of the Brickell award - awarded to a collection-holder who has excelled in cultivated plant conservation, which this year we...
Growing and planting for the gardens of the future - with Neil Lucas of Knoll Gardens
August 04, 2023 08:35 - 20 minutes - 27.9 MBAhead of his time in naturalistic planting at the Dorset gardens and nursery Knoll Gardens, Neil Lucas was an innovator in a movement whose time has well and truly come: "Certainly when I first started it was far more unusual to garden or more importantly to be thinking in this way. For many of our customers it is [now] becoming front and centre. "I think it is such an important subject...supplying plants that are going to be suitable for the gardens of the future - I think we're just at t...
Martyn Flint of Chrysanthemums Direct
July 28, 2023 08:35 - 19 minutes - 27.3 MBFlower shows stalwart Martyn Flint of Chysanthemums Direct has told the Horticulture Week Podcast he is going into retirement. The 36-year flower show veteran reflects on how shows have changed in recent years. "They were beginning to lose their shine in the years before Covid" and with the move online not all shows have survived: "The half a dozen shows we do - the big RHS shows - are the ones that make us the money... The other 18 shows we were doing in the year before Covid - when you t...
From elite football to elite horticulture - ambition and high standards with Creepers' Michael Buck
July 21, 2023 06:36 - 40 minutes - 55.4 MBAt the age of 15, Michael Buck, was busy destroying plants in his back garden kicking a football around as at that time he was already getting paid to play and was contemplating a future in the professional game. But he transferred his ambition to the world of horticulture and as head of horticulture at Creepers Nursery, is not beyond singing to plants to get them to flower. Creepers, which serves a client base predominantely made up of landscape and garden designers and developers, supplie...
Unearthing the benefits of healthy soils and how it can help fight climate change, with Tim O'Hare
July 13, 2023 16:19 - 34 minutes - 47.6 MBThis week renowned soil scientist Tim O'Hare unearths the ways soil is impacted by and can impact climate change. Tim O'Hare Associates recently won a Pineapples awards for Circus Street in Brighton where a derelict urban market space was redeveloped into a mixed-use neighbourhood space. Tim developed the various soil profiles and ensured they were sourced and installed correctly: "We're well down the food chain on the consultants that are involved iwth these sort of things but we take pri...
Gardens made of daydream, turned into an equation and back into a daydream - with Peter Donegan
July 07, 2023 13:06 - 37 minutes - 51.2 MBGarden designer Peter Donegan returned to the HortWeek Podcast fresh from the 116th Royal Windsor flower show in June where he enjoyed the "humbling compliment" of judging alongside a "who's who" of garden industry including former Chelsea shows manager Alex Denman, Rob Hardy of Harkness Roses and Alan Titchmarsh. He reflects on his trajectory from a 'geeky' kid growing plants under his bed, on top of the wardrobe and in the garage to his grown up self (resembling "Something out of a bad bo...
Managing irrigation when using peat-free growing media - with ICL
June 30, 2023 09:06 - 19 minutes - 44.6 MBHortWeek editor Matt Appleby talks with ICL's Sam Rivers about irrigation and peat-free growing media. Sam explains why irrigation is important in peat-free growing media and differences between watering with peat alternatives and peat. He reveals options growers can use to help manage irrigation, which wetting agents to use and gives examples of where H2Gro has shown to benefit growers. Finally, Sam talks about how much interest in peat-free is growing, with many growers trialling the p...
Bringing business nous to arboriculture, with Henri Ghijben of HRG Tree Surgeons
June 23, 2023 11:48 - 27 minutes - 37.1 MBHenri Ghijben of HRG Tree surgeons has been mentoring other tree surgeon businesses through the Tree Surgeon's mastermind since the start of 2022. Keynote speaker for the Arb Show of 2022 he tells the Horticulture Week Podcast about how tree surgeons and arb contractors can benefit from sharpening their business skills. Drawing on his own experiences, he offers his "blueprint to my tree surgery business" based on 'Five Pillars of a successful arb business': Mindset Sales and marketing N...
Legendary plant breeder Peter Moore reflects 40 years and 45 plants
June 16, 2023 09:07 - 16 minutes - 22.6 MBPlant breeder Peter Moore, who has been creating new plants for 40 years, tells HortWeek about his new breeding and his vast experience in the production of new plants. He started work at Hillier in 1960 with some legendary Hillier propagators. In 1997 he left Hillier’s to become propagator at Longstock Park Nursery in Hampshire. He is still responsible for the National Collection of Buddleja held at the nursery and is also a member of the RHS hardy plant trial committee. Plant collectors...
Harrowden Turf on wildflowers, plastic, demand, tech and mental health
June 09, 2023 07:49 - 16 minutes - 23.1 MBHarrowden Turf's managing director Stuart Ridd-Jones talks on the Horticulture Week Podcast about the company's diversification from turf growing to wildflower turf, sedum, green roofs and topsoil. Ridd-Jones gives us a market outlook and discusses new technology such as the Firefly Harvester. The effects of extreme weather due climate change on smaller gardens means we need new types of turf, such as shade-tolerant products, he says. Plastic in wildflower turf and not mowing turf as p...
TV gardener Chris Collins on the royal wedding, parks, children's and community gardening
June 05, 2023 12:39 - 19 minutes - 27.1 MBHorticulturist Chris Collins, the Westminster Abbey head gardener, talks to the Horticulture Week podcast about the royal wedding and how he would have prepared the gardens for the big event. As a former Brighton Parks gardener, Collins rues the decline in funding for green spaces. And as Garden Organic head of horticulture, he talks about his role promoting organic gardening. The ex -Blue Peter gardener also discusses his campaigning during the annual National Children's Gardening Week, ...
Keeping the plant trade healthy - Alistair Yeomans of Plant Healthy on the biosecurity challenges
May 26, 2023 11:36 - 20 minutes - 27.7 MBAlistair Yeomans has been with Plant Healthy since it was set up 2019. Plant Healthy is the biosecurity standard for UK businesses, mainly growers. The Plant Health Alliance is made up of Defra and about 20 trade and other membership bodies including the National Trust, RHS and HTA and they own the Plant Health Management Standard and the Governing Body of the Plant Healthy Certification Scheme. Yeomans talks about how the scheme will expand, how it can never cover the whole industry but s...