HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby, senior reporter Rachael Forsyth and technical editor Sally Drury share their top horticulture stories of 2025.

00:00:43 - horticulture and peat-free

00:04:10 - developments in Biodiversity Net Gain

00:07:26 - remote mowers, new technology and implications

00:13:13 - loss of horticulture colleges and new learning options

00:17:54 - the impact of drought in 2025 going into 2026

00:21:30 - how horticulture is turning to battery-powered kit

00:26:20 - diversity, inclustion and equity in horticulture

00:30:34 - border inspections - imports, exports and an SPS agreement for 2026

00:36:42 - what are the team looking forward to in 2026?

Do check out our huge archive of HortWeek Podcast interviews with an unrivalled selection of prominent and fascinating figures from all corners of the horticulture sector.

Podcast presenters: Matthew Appleby, Rachael Forsyth and Sally Drury

Podcast producer: Christina Taylor

Make sure you never miss a HortWeek podcast! Subscribe to or Follow HortWeek podcasts via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred podcast platform. 

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The Garden Trust's Linden Groves is campaigning against a proposal to end the organisation's role as a planning statutory consultee.

She robustly contests the proposal to remove the statutory consultee role and disagrees that it would improve the planning system. Instead, precious parks and gardens, hard won over many centuries, would be lost to communities both now and in future.

“We are passionate about the role that the UK’s world-famous historic parks and gardens can play in supporting positive economic growth and healthy cohesive societies, and eager to continue helping this in our role as statutory consultee. We encourage supporters to respond to the consultation and will publish our response as soon as possible.”

In March, the Government decided to ditch planning consultancy from bodies including The Gardens Trust, to speed up the planning system. “We are seeking views on reforming the role of statutory consultees in the planning system in England,” it said. The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 13 January 2026.

• The consultation can be accessed here.

Make sure you never miss a HortWeek podcast! Subscribe to or Follow HortWeek podcasts via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred podcast platform. 

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With HortWeek senior reporter Rachael Forsyth fresh from the GrootGroenPlus trade show, we hear how European growers are tackling the challenge of imports/ exports with the UK - with producers saying they would be "delighted" to see the SPS agreement come into force.

HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby and Rachael talk about:

• Inspection regimes and paperwork both sides of the border, and how it is affecting European traders
• The latest round of delays and reports of damaged plants at BCP Sevington
• How 'experiences' could transform the fortunes of garden centres and horticulture shows
• How new analysis of horticulture company results is showing who is doing well
• 
  

Do check out our huge archive of HortWeek Podcast interviews with an unrivalled selection of prominent and fascinating figures from all corners of the horticulture sector.

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Veteran, 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, continues where the late parks historian Hazel Conway's People's Parks left off. It explores parks "beyond the Victorian era, right, through the Garden Cities movement, right up through austerity, Covid" and on.

"I just felt it was timely to bring what she'd done up to date but also kind of reinvigorate...interest in the kind of history and heritage of parks and why we have them, why we enjoy them and why they're so important".

Among the fascinating facts unearthed during the research of the book was the vast difference in staffing of parks, with hundreds of qualified gardeners and park keepers employed in the days of London County Council. He also explores "Parkitecture" over the years, the marked change in the number and design of children's play areas, changes in parks management, tendering, and of course, funding leading to "a decline and eroding of what we do in parks." 

As ever on the Horticulture Week Podcast, the issue of labour shortages arises: "How is it you will attract somebody to work in parks these days? There's no pathway like they used to be. No career pathway at all...We're not getting the applications and where we are getting them, the quality is not very good."

He speaks with characteristic passion about his love for the work he does and the work being done by Parks Management Association, APSE and other organisations to "make parks sexy again!" 

He also discusses severe local authority budget cuts and financial constraints which have forced some, such as Birmingham, into bankrupcy plus the myriad of pressures post Covid and arising from the 'cost of living crisis'. 

The logical consequence of all this is, he says, "there is going to be a greater emphasis on the third sector and on volunteers" and a "greater emphasis on commercialization".

So, times are hard, he says, "but actually there's some really good stuff going on out there. I mean, the number of friends groups that we've got across the country are just incredible.

As a Green Flag awards judge, Paul gets to see the best of parks and sometimes the most curious, like a bear pit "in the middle of the Wirral"

There are plenty of reasons to be cheerful as some local authorities are "really making a difference".

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The 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 Estuary Park and masterplanning a 25% increase of footprint of Canterbury.

The latter is a project that reflects the aims and concerns of BNG:

"It's really looking at how we can improve the landscape while we're bringing about new development. So you know the two can happen hand in hand.

Development doesn't necessarily have to mean that a landscape is harmed in any way or brings about negative consequences. In fact, if we plan in a landscape-led sort of way, then we can actually bring benefits to that landscape."

Now that BNG is here, with the hope it will help reverse a rapid decline in biodiversity in UK landscapes, Alexandra nevertheless has a number of concerns:

"I would say my biggest concern is that biodiversity net gain is being considered on a plot by plot basis. So rather than looking at a landscape in its kind of regional capacity, or you know, at a watershed level, where all of its natural processes and systems are taken into account - instead, we're dividing it up and trying to apply improvements on a plot by plot and piecemeal basis. And nature just doesn't work that way...so right from the start, that brings about a lot of problems"

She explains her fears that measures taken could become a 'box-ticking' exercise, potentially "a homogenisation of habitats that are easy to deliver" and improvements restricted to the plot boundary, leading to disconnected islands of green space and "not getting the benefits of enriching the larger landscape".

Alexandra is also concerned there will be a lack of governance and ongoing management and stewardship exacerbated by a lack of funding for in-house expertise within local authorities.

More broadly, Alexandra is passionate about interconnectedness and people's connection with nature as a necessary means to heal the planet. Her book, "Portrait to Landscape: A Landscape Strategy to Reframe Our Future" explores the role policy makers, developers, landscapers through to individual citizens.

As she says, it is "about how we deal with our landscapes because it expresses everything that we as humans believe about nature and our relationship to nature.

So it's not just important for those of us working in the landscape industries, it's important for everybody to understand this and to understand the power held there and the power for rehabilitation within our landscapes."

Presenter: HortWeek senior reporter: Rachael Forsyth

Producer: HortWeek digital content manager Christina Taylor

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Former 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 Cosmos to select 100 in peak condition in May 2024, what's in it for him?

"Commercially it's a ridiculous decision because doing flower shows, it costs a fair amount of money. 

He is conscious, if a tad sceptical about the need to address sustainability as a grower. He grows in peat-free compost, favours terracotta pots over plastic ones, but he tries not to "over-egg what I do".

But in the run-up to Chelsea, his plant collections are recovering from a severe flooding event which will provide a dramatic narrative backdrop to his exhibit at Chelsea.

He narrates the events of 20 October 2023 in the wake of storm Babette:

"By 4.30 in the morning we heard the upstairs toilet start bubbling, which I think was a sign that all the drains had been overloaded. And we literally packed the car and kind of evacuated...filling the car with my precious seeds for the National Plant Collection."

"I think that part of the flower show is actually focusing on flooding and resilience this year...well what better story to say that a grower that's been flooded out can come back, can come to Chelsea and show award-winning flowers?"

The experience chimes with his interest in water conservation; his two plant collections survive solely on the 20,000 litres of the rainwater he stores over winter. 

It's a far cry from his former life when Jonathan was, he jokes, "one of those nasty lobbyists that people imagine" working for clients such as Royal Mail, Boots and the Woodland Trust - "essentially working in the political arena to either guard against threats that come from Government because all legislation has unintended consequences, or indeed spotting opportunities".

He says he is actually proud of some of the work lobbyists do, "keeping Government in check and ensuring that perhaps some decisions that they take, that can be quite ludicrous and ridiculous because they haven't got all the information, perhaps get amended or changed or influenced".

He contemplates what horticulture should be lobbying for: "If I was the industry, I'd be gearing up for the next election...what are you going to be wanting from whoever forms the next Government? What are your five asks?" He asks for "certainty" on peat and a more joined-up approach.

Despite the recent attention lavished on the industry during the Lords Horticulture Enquiry and subsequent report, the work is not over, he says.

"There has to be a realisation...that once you've had a big piece of work, right, we're there, we're done...but politics doesn't work like that..

"It's following through on that and ensuring that you don't let Government off the hook.

As for the future, as his "hobby" takes an ever greater hold of him, Jonathan is contemplating possibilities, maybe even a third national plant collection. Watch this space.

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Lee 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 policies seem to work against each other in areas such as labour, though Defra strives to do the right thing.

With an increasingly high profile in the media, he has not had to pitch a story for two years. The media wants to know what is happening on the ground rather than what the BRC, supermarkets or the Government is saying, so Stiles gets daily calls from around the world.

And on the ground, he predicts there could be more empty shelves this year due to ongoing issues in Europe and North Africa with viruses and market prices. One certainty, he says, is that production volumes from British growers have not increased: "There will be a gap. Retailers will either pay more or have empty shelves."

But he adds that there is a fine line between warning about problems and "spooking" the retailers and the public: "UK growers are stable now after two years of decline and small business closure." He says the is the same as in Europe. Few can invest in new machinery and are just concentrating on keeping their heads above water.

Government help for smaller producers has been too little too late and any help "avoids the underlying problem of low prices". Meanwhile primary producers are not making money he says, intermediaries deal with the retailer, so loyalty and service standards matter less:

"We're 10 years into a supermarket price wa and it seems to be getting worse. There's not enough profit in the supply chain at the moment which means the trend for British producers closing will accelerate, reducing self-sufficiency and food security."

He would like to see loss leader legislation to stop retailers selling at less than the cost of purchase. It is used to protect producers in France, Canada and Germany, for instance.

But regardless, Lee says, whoever comes in next politically, "will inherit quite a mess".

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Garden 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 months particularly there have been some very exciting developments. It's a great place to be at the moment."

He talks about the focus for the Guild, which, as with all trade associations, is how to drive up the membership and also how best to serve it. The importance of visiting each others gardens and learning ways to cope with pest and diseases, planting tips and the like from other head gardeners is still key: "There's more information to be gleaned from other head gardeners than there is from Google."

He wanted to be a footballer, but while waiting for his break, began a four-year horticultural apprenticeship and studied with the Institute of Groundsmanship and later Askham Bryan College. "I thought I might become a groundsman. Surely I'll get spotted kicking a football at lunchtime. I'll be playing for England in a fortnight. It never happened."

After completing his studies he landed the job of head gardener at Bramham Park, a French style garden where in some ways, his learning was just beginning:

"I always said I learnt more in the first six months as a head gardener than I had in eight years at college. And that's not meant to be a slur on what they taught me at Askham Bryan. It's just that when you're in position, you have to learn."

Castle Howard's Brian Hutchinson formed the Professional Gardeners Guild around this time and Alan was offered the gardener's manager's job at Harewood House which is where he got his TV break when Yorkshire TV started filming there.

After leaving Harewood in 1987 he set up a garden design business, got a contract in France, bought a 14th century manor house set in eight and a half acres and decided to create a garden there which Yorkshire TV (later on Channel 4) turned into Le Manoir - "and this was 25 years before Escape to the Chateau".

Alan talks about PGG's work with horticultural charity Perennial and how he's looking to make links with other garden organisations including National Trust and Historic Houses.

He's also involved with encouraging people into the industry via traineeships in collaboration with English Heritage, Historic and Botanic Gardens Trainee Programme and the MacRobert Trust. 

"It's so easy just to become an insular little group for head gardeners. And we don't want that at all. We want to be what Brian Hutchinson thought we should be at the very start, great for our own members, learning from each other."

Alan talks about his view on pay grades for gardeners, financial pressures and how, post-Covid, many places have replaced professionals with volunteers.

"What the PGG does is offer a salaries and rates guideline...you can use that guideline to show to your employer...and very often it does help with negotiation.

"It is a negotiating tool, but it will never be perfect. But it is a great assistance. And I know that other professional bodies look to the PGG for our salaries and rates guideline and use it as a good example.

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Annabelle 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 five by combining horticulture therapy and counselling and "trying to give people of all ages access to mental health support that works".

The organisation receives referrals from the NHS, works with school children and in schools, and has therapeutic sites in Northamptonshire and Wales. Annabelle is fundraising to try and open more sites and operate in more schools.

A "child-led sort of approach" allows young people to learn how to grow their own food and "connect with the environment and wildlife". It runs after-school clubs and liaises with schools to help children with "challenging behaviour, (as much as I don't like that word)", anxiety, and poor self-esteem and helps them stay in mainstream education.

Her biggest goal, she says, is to gain sponsorship from a horticultural firm on an ongoing basis and to garner more general support from the sector.

Regards mental health support within horticulture, more could be done Annabelle says: "I'd be interested to know... how many organisations in the industry do have a mental health support policy...there's definitely value in companies investing in this area".

A witness at the 2023 Lords horticulture enquiry Annabelle argued "we need to up our game in terms of horticultural therapy", training, defining what is horticultural therapy and of course, funding.

There is an irony, she says, in "the amount of people that are isolated as horticulturists within the industry that are struggling with their mental health" which "doesn't add up either with how much in the media we're saying gardening can help".

Getting horticulture on to the schools National Curriculum would also "massively help kids mental health and just the knowledge of where food comes from" as well as offering time outside the classroom.

Annabelle set up Growing for Wellbeing Week (3 - 9 June 2024) to help with fundraising and "where we can really push our messaging on a bigger scale, but also offer resources to... colleges, secondary schools, universities, care homes."

With access to mental health services for adults and young people severely stretched, she would like to be able to have more qualified professional councellors and offer a "wraparound service".

The project has a partnership with Prince and Princess of Wales' Royal Foundation which she hopes will help, "if anyone's interested in supporting us then them coming forward."

Annabelle admits frustration with the "definite lack of interest [from the horticulture sector so far], which is frustrating on many levels. But I think there's a lot more for industry to do because it makes sense, doesn't it?"

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Landscape 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 somebody how different world was, 50 years ago, in the world of landscaping".

Although the industry is making strides towards being more environmentally friendly, with electric vehicle fleets and sustainably-sourced landscape materials, Alan says he sees a new "butter mountain" on the horizon in the form of ceramic paving as it is not recyclable.

He says: "I probably condemns about 800m a year" of artificial turf, thereby consigning vast amounts of plastic to landfill because of poor installation practices.

Legal hot spots include peat-free alternatives as growers sue growing media producers as their products fail to perform as promised and "wipe out whole batches of plants". He forecasts that it will become "quite an issue".

A prolific self-publisher of books, Alan's next opus, due just in time for Christmas 2023, will be the "A-to-Z of Paving" which will cover all aspects of paving projects.

Alan is of course a HortWeek man through and through having written more than 100 articles for the title over his tenure. Find his impressive and essential catalogue of advice for landscapers and gardeners, his Sargents' Solutions, at HortWeek.com.

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Garden 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 passion."

He advises entrants to horticulture to take maximum advantage of any opportunities to gain knowledge: "If you can volunteer for someone, do it, you'll learn something. If there's a competition, if there's something, something or some way you can get involved, you never know what's going to come of it.

Lee never planned a career in TV, but the opportunity on BBC's Garden Rescue programme (co-starring Charlie Dimmock) came about after Lee had built a profile on YouTube with gardening advice. But gardening TV is not a bed of roses he says:

"It's been a tough year for garden media...The fact there's a cost of living crisis, all of these things impact on a huge level because for a lot of people hort design plants are a luxury. They're not a necessity. So it's the first thing to go. 

"There's Garden Rescue, there's Gardener's World - that's still the two main garden shows that have funding...looking at the viewing figures and the response from the public, it seems to be a show that has a really good feel-good factor."

Lee explains what inspires him to keep coming up with fresh design ideas, the working dynamic with Charlie Dimmock, and what he hopes to add to the show:

"Since I've joined, I've been really pushing for more knowledge. Like, let me explain the 'why' about these plants, the why about the design, so that people can then interpret that to their own gardens rather than just showing them lots of nice things, nice plants, nice layouts.

He is also passionate about the need to improve diversity in horticulture, to get horticulture into schools and address career issues such as wages:

"We should open our doors a bit more, explain things more, help people, welcome them in. You know, there's enough cake for everyone in terms of hort and gardening."

While he's not planning any more shows for now, "when I next do one, I'd like it to be sort of a bit left field, the next level of Garden Ninja",he says. "I'd love to create a garden that looks like Mother Nature's finally got revenge on what we've done to the planet...kind of like scary garden [with] flame and smoke and a crevasse and stuff like that."

And he's got a few ideas for his own show: "not necessarily a makeover show like garden rescue, but something that just gets me really hands deep in design and plants and the why - why does this work?"

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Sue 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 plants on site but also sells by mail order and online. Sue also exhibits at shows and is active on social media. It is a lot of work and Sue discusses how she manages the workload - a mixture of effective training, delegation and being a very capable multi-tasker.

She talks about the challenges and benefits of shows and her experience of using X (formerly Twitter). Initially reluctant, she soon found that "Twitter for me was a way of engaging with both a gardening audience online, but critically, with the media. Facebook I think is wonderful for engaging with your immediate customers and direct followers."

She speaks about the barriers to expansion, and the specific challenges of horticultural businesses: "You need land and you need structures and land is expensive and under huge competition for potential other purposes...even if you get over that hurdle, you've got planning permission over polytunnels and structures. 

She has abandoned her own plans to build "a cracking wholesale nursery of good hardy perennials. There's huge capacity missing from the UK in that arena" due to lack of funds and a partner to share the risk. Instead Sue is expanding her growing area and she has a great interest in renewable energy which she says is a "no-brainer".

She also discusses how horticulture has not been "embraced" UK as it has in Netherlands to the UK's detriment.

Sue is also active with the RHS at Bridgewater and is vice chair of the Herbaceous Plant Committee. She became a Council member this year which is "seriously exciting" and she is "seriously impressed" with the people and the way it is run.

"What I'm trying to bring is that connection between horticulture and business and sustainability and hopefully come at it from a multi-dimensional point of view."

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HortWeek 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 and route into a career in professional gardening.

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The Biodiversity Net Gain market has come along way since BNG became mandatory in England under the Environment Act 2021. The ruling requires developers to deliver at least 10% biodiversity net gain for new construction projects.

In this week's HortWeek Podcast Rachael Forsyth speaks to head of sales and services Emma Hindle and head of business development Brian Smith at Ground Control, which provides ready-to-buy BNG units as part of a habitat bank.

They discuss how the market is developing, the drivers of demand, and shifting balance of supply and demand.

Although Government targets and policy for house building is driving construction projects, Brian explains that Ground Control is "not betting the farm on housebuilders" and is keeping it's client base deliberately broad, including utility companies, transport companies as well as corporate clients such as supermarkets. Interestingly, a burgeoning "voluntary market" is also part of the picture, he says, 

But while developers might, understandably, focus on the immediate costs when deciding on how to approach BNG requirements, a 30-year maintenance lifespan means a "whole life" cost approach is more appropriate, he argues. 

The market has come on leaps and bounds since 2021, Emma adds, insisting the focus should always come back to nature recovery and the "benefits for the country". Many that had reservations initially are now "taking it seriously", she says, and the prospects for BNG over the next five years are "amazing".  

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HortWeek 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 gardens management with interviews with Raoul Curtis-Machin, director of horticulture at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, interviewed by HortWeek writer and business consultant Neville Stein.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HortWeek 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 involves and how he came to the role.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HortWeek 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 able to bring his passion for modern languages into his work to create a unique career in horticulture.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HortWeek 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 and the career opportunities that can open up after you have qualified.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HortWeek 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 week we focus on Horticultural Education with an interview with Sarah Hale, horticultural courses officer at the RHS.

Hear about options for training and qualifications with the RHS and how it can be a 'passport' to an exciting career in horticulture.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HortWeek 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 two months, we will be releasing two episodes covering a particular job area.

This week we focus on plant breeding and horticulture consultant Neville Stein interviews Simon Crawford, plant breeder a Burpee.

Hear about what the world of plant breeding offers, what the opportunities are and the skillset required. In a world that is facing significant climate change challenges, the need for plants that can adapt to heat, drought and other abiotic stresses has never been more important, and the work of plant breeders who are in high demand.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HortWeek 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 two months, we will be releasing two episodes covering a particular job area.

This week we focus on plant breeding and horticulture consultant Neville Stein interviews Tim Kerley, plant breeder at Kerley & Co.

Hear about what the world of plant breeding offers, what the opportunities are and the skillset required. In a world that is facing significant climate change challenges, the need for plants that can adapt to heat, drought and other abiotic stresses has never been more important, and the work of plant breeders is in high demand.

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Head 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 thing I love most is to go into the 'who, what, why, when, where' - and really explain a topic, even if it's something simple", he says. He hopes the approach will help encourage more people to take up gardening and even enter the industry.

Smith discusses his route into horticulture - which was not direct - and he says there should be more promotion of careers in horticulture at school to showcase options to school leavers. He studied cyber security before finding his first gardening role at the job centre. He got the job at National Trust Scotland Kellie Castle "because nobody else showed up to interview!

"And my boss at the time, who's still a horticultural hero to this day, Mark Arber, he's still the head gardener there - he really made me see that horticulture is a career path... he was so passionate and enthusiastic and funny and I actually really looked forward to going to work...and that was me well and truly bitten by the horticultural bug and stuck in ever since."

If horticulture is to attract and keep people, it must be more highly valued by society and crucially, better paid, he says: "Sadly I've known a couple of people who have been horticultural students and have done their full apprenticeship, and because they need the money, they've actually left horticulture and going into selling cars and things like this."

By way of example he explains the range of tasks, skills and knowledge needed to do his job and but he adds "I always feel for those people in production horticulture because there must be so much pressure on them...I'm vastly reliant on production horticulture specialists because you know if I don't have them I don't have plants. It's a very, very skilled, area for sure."

He talks about climate change and using peat free growing media which he has found to be "very unpredictable". 

"The B&Q Verve range is very different to MiracleGro, which is very different to Sylvagrow, which is different to the next one. And none of them seem to have a standardised recipe. And you can find that even between batches of the very same brand, it can be different as well."

He feels the pressure on growers to go peat-free is too high, that more research is needed: "You can't expect, as a government, to click your fingers and say 'right everybody's peat free in two years' - it's such an ill-educated way of looking at it, I think."

Though one of his favourite phrases - "What's for you won't go past you" - implies a touch of fatalism, his best advice for those looking to make a success of horticulture is more positive: "It's by saying yes to things that you'll suddenly find it opens another vista, another door opens and you'll say yes to that. And then another avenue opens; you'll say yes to that. Before you know it, you're miles away from where you were at the beginning."

His other mantra is to keep learning and pushing yourself: "Horticulture is so vast, you're never gonna know everything".

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Landscape 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 possibly even of human survival if that's not repaired very quickly".

He discusses his extensive professional history in local authorities where he had a hand in planting extensive woodland areas that he is proud to be able to see on Google Earth:

"Because the approach we took started to create much higher land values, everybody left us alone of course!"

Tom reflects on developments in the landscape architecture sector and standing of the profession. He argues that biodiversity and ecological considerations need to be "completely integrated into the design process...but as far as I can see, its sort of talked about but it doesn't really seem to be" and instead reduced to a "box-ticking exercise".

"There should be a complete integration of ecology and design in most projects."

His involvement in the National Fruit Collection in Kent at Brogdale Farm in Kent started 30 years ago when he designed a series of gardens to tell the story of fruit in their historical context. 

Big developments are afoot - the whole farm (of which a third is the National Fruit Collection) is up for sale. Defra has a long-lease on the land so, depending on the new landlords, "the collection should be secure - particularly as it's got international status with the FAO".

Brogdale is fundraising for a visitor information and learning centre and to help to keep the centre going. It remains the only fruiting collecton open to the public with 4,000 cultivars including apples, pears, plums, cherries, quince, medlars and wine-making grapes.

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Sam 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 control the insect. Rivers says the armoury is now better for growers thanks to Lalguard.

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In this week's News In Focus podcast HortWeek editor, Matthew Appleby, technical editor Sally Drury and senior reporter Rachael Forsyth discuss:

• the eagerly awaited Top 250 Garden Centres 2025

• some of the garden product highlights from GLEE

• How YouTube is 'where it's at' for gardening content

• Prospects and stresses for the garden retail sector after a busy 2025

• How changes in peat and coir supply are causing price fluctuations and how division in the industry over the prospective peat ban is hurting horticulture

Do check out our huge archive of HortWeek Podcast interviews - an unrivalled selection of prominent and fascinating figures from all corners of the horticulture sector.

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Dr 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 photography, he hopes will open people's eyes and minds to the topic:

"People see moss as a substance, as almost as a sort of amorphous green stuff, which is growing on top of the wall, they tend to have a negative approach to it. Because they're not seeing the difference between the individual plants, they're not seeing how interesting and actually how beautiful they are."

A biologist and taxonomist, Neil is also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Bryology and in this podcast he relates exactly why he finds bryophytes so fascinating, including the role they play in peat creation and carbon capture:

"Certain bryophyte-rich ecosystems represent massive carbon sinks.

"[Peat] is basically undecomposed organic matter. It's undecomposed moss. And on the top layer... is a layer of living sphagnum moss. Sphagnum species are adapted to maintain this habitat in this particular state and prevent decomposition of the peat underneath which would lead to the release of this carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It creates a sort of wet blanket over the soil. It also keeps it very acidic, which prevents decomposition.

"About 20% of the carbon stored on land in natural habitats is actually in the form of peat, so it's really quite a huge amount. So it's really important that we maintain peatland ecosystems."

He outlines the role mossy habitats can play in flooding mitigation:

"All these bryophytes, when it rains, are very quickly ...absorbing a lot of this water and keeping it in their tissues, and then over then a space of days gradually releasing again into the rivers. It just basically means that the flow of water through that habitat is slowed down and buffered and thus flooding is less likely than it would be otherwise." 

Neil has a particular fascination for the habitats in Scotland - including a richly biodiverse temperate rain forest - which hosts extremely rare, even unique species. And there is much much more to discover:

"Once you discover that diversity is there, and it's not something you ever heard about before, it's sort of like another world opens up, a veil is taken away from what was previously a completely hidden area of biodiversity."

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There 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 a scholarship which was the prize for coming top in the RHS's professional exam in 1898. And the letter said you can't have the scholarship because you're a woman and the scholarship was to train at the RHS garden at Chiswick, and Chiswick didn't train women."

Her curiosity piqued, she set out to uncover this fascinating and hidden history and has compiled her findings in her book, An Almost Impossible Thing, The Radical Lives of Britain's Pioneering Women Gardeners. 

The book captures stories from the 1890s to the First World War, "when this kind of little golden moment, this boom in women wanting to start careers in gardening happened".

She documents reaction to these women at the time: "There was a big, strong, negative pushback from the horticultural establishment... most male gardeners were not receptive to this idea at all. And there's some absolutely corking letters in Gardener's Chronicle and in the Journal of Horticulture... lots and lots of outraged letters."

The discussion covers the social context of those pre-war years but moves to reflect on present day concerns regarding opportunities for women in horticulture: "There's a kind of common pattern that women do child care and go part-time and that does make it harder to progress to the very top of professions."

Reflecting on the lack of female Gold award-winners at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, she says: "There is a kind of conservatism with the little scene that you recognise and reward what you're familiar with. If a sponsor is sponsoring a big garden they want a gold medal at the end of it, almost guaranteed.

So what do they do? They look around it in the past: Who's won a gold medal? And so it becomes self-perpetuating," but with women heading up the NFU, the Landscape Institute, the RHS and Defra she agrees, "it is changing and it will change more".

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This 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 her young family to take care of the gardens, first established in 1893 by Colonel Clark.

Harry brings experience from Kew background with specialism in trees and history. He speaks about the extensive Borde Hill archive which has artefacts, drawings, photos and letters from plant hunters writing to the Colonel. It "keeps everyone on their toes...telling us more and more about our special garden", Harry says.

And there are still plants hidden to be discovered: 

"Every now and again, we're finding new old garden diaries which are detailing plant names, some of which, these plants no longer are sadly with us, but there are plants still hidden away in those crevices waiting to be found, which of course then informs us about propagation and then sharing that material with other important gardens."

The garden recently drew the attention of Adam Frost who came to explore some of that plant history to be featured on BBC Gardeners' World and BBC Radio 4's Gardener's Question Time also paid a visit yielding questions on more contemporary gardening preoccupations.

Jay explains how she plans to carry forward the legacy of her parents (who collaborated with Chris Beardshaw and Sophie Walker) to try and "connect communities more closely with nature ... there's so much written now and so much research that shows the mental and physical benefits of being outdoors in nature" which forms part of the "hugely ambitious" Reinventing Borde Hill project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

A key part of this involves opening up the South Lodge entrance which will  that will enable people to walk or cycle from Hayward's Heath station [the largest commuter rail station in the South East] to Borde Hill.

"It will make Borde hill one of the few Sussex Gardens that will be accessible via green transport in terms of foot or bicycle", Harry explains.

Enhancements to the heritage-listed landscape must be sensitively implemented and include improving existing paths and building an 'eco lodge as a community hub offering swimming, yoga, walking trails and other mindful activities. Younger visitors can also enjoy the well-being and educational benefits of enjoying the great outdoors via a dedicated learning space in Dinosaur Wood.

"What I really want to get across to the visitor is there's always so much more than just a flower or ornamental value. There's a whole back story about how these plants came into cultivation and have been used medicinally, they've been used ethnopotentically for so many, many years.

As a tree specialist, Harry is excited about the work preserve and propagate the champion trees. He tells the tale of the coveted Emonopteris henryi,  first brought back from China by Ernest Wilson. But the tree did not flower for 3 generations: "It actually flowered almost 100 years later in 2011, which is a real curiosity. No one really knows why it's taken so long to flower in a British climate."

The tree was selected as the emblem for Borde Hill "as a demonstration of celebrating that heritage, but really thinking about how we stay fresh and relevant for the future", and it is central to one of the garden's missions to preserve rare species for future generations.

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This 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 which have disappeared across the last three centuries.

"It would be really nice to go back through 300 years of history and speak to every single Duke and the designers and say 'Why? When? How?'" he says. 

The 10-year-plus project will be the biggest change to its 90 acres of gardens in over 100 years and Andy has been told the Oxfordshire gardens "have been in aspic for the last 40 years...it is time for a change". 

But with changing climate conditions, the updates to the garden will involve a degree of evolution: "Gardeners have always had to roll with it and evolve with it. Blenheim is such a big influential property, what we do here, hopefully echoes what other people do, because it always has."

He waxes lyrical about the hundreds of charming details he is discovering daily as he wanders the estate: "I'm finding new interesting details all the time"

But as well as delighting in hidden wonders, Andy has discovered that what would have been an "amazing plant collection...has slowly disappeared" and species he would expect to see "are just not there".

Andy talks about how he is reviving a "rewilding" approach at Blenheim, and has left some 60 acres of the grass uncut rather than "mowing it tight as a billiard table". He is making the Secret Garden "more secret", refining the hedges in the Italian Garden which currently look like "office carpet", introducing some "big drifts" of plants in the borders inspired by his work at the National Trust's Packwood House.

Longer term Andy hopes his work will elevate the gardens on the world stage:

"I'd see Blenheim very firmly established on the world gardening map...I mean this is the English Versailles!

He adds: "I'd like to see not just Blenheim Palace but Blenheim Palace and Garden...because the garden is way more important!"

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The 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, which in turn helps us going into 2024. I would like that to stay where it is or improve, because that is a big influencing factor on the cost prices to bring items in from the Far East."

Now amid a prolongued cost-of-living crisis, the dramatic fall in container costs means being able to pass on price cuts but "people have more places, more avenues to spend their discretionary money now" Andy says. 

But he's optimistic about stocking for 2023 going into 2024:

"I think the opportunity will be to bring more products in early before the season next year to make sure that everyone's geared up in advance with the stocks ready to sell, rather than holding off for the season, waiting for the dollar to be right or the shipping containers to be right."

Maze has much to celebrate after being included in the Growth 100 Index - reflecting its phenomenal period of growth - as well as a listing in the Top 25 Retail businesses in the UK.

Trends-wise, we have reached 'peat rattan', Andy says: "there's a lot more neutrals and natural colours coming through, especially mixed materials...a lot more wood and the rope weave coming through as well.

Though online is a growth area, Andy recognises the limitations and difficulties of persuading people to make big ticket purchases on higher end products and garden centres are key in offering a place for consumers to see the product for themselves. But Andy says, garden centres need to embrace the new styles coming through:

"Our team are trying to get across and trying to incentivize people to take the plunge ...to go for these newer products, which there is demand [for] out there. I think people just need to be able to see it and touch it. "

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This 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 an eye for design on the site", Richard says.

The staff culture at Kew has also changed, says Rebecca, "giving more autonomy with the view of improving design and I think that's made a really big difference to how people are looking after their areas and the drive within the teams has really improved as a result of that". 

Kew recently achieved Plant Healthy certification (only the third garden in the UK to receive it) and Richard explains why it was so important to Kew:

"Plant health and biosecurity are incredibly important for this country and for any country because the risk and cost that arises from accidental introduction of pathogens and pests and diseases as everyone knows can be horrendous - not only monetary cost, but costs to the landscape.

"We are really focused [on this] and we need to be because our collections are hugely important, but also as we feel it's our responsibility to set that example for other organisations as well."

Faced with the vagueries of climate change for its outdoor collections, Kew is undertaking research on future climate conditions 2050 to 2100 in the London area and whether its plant stock will be suited to them. Strikingly, "By 2050 approximately a quarter of what we are growing currently will be out of its range of comfortable growing conditions", Richard says. "So our gaze shifts to parts of the world which have conditions that are better matched to the future climate in this part the country, and that's where we look to find species that we can substitute into the landscape for the future". Rebecca explains how they are working to monitor individual species, relocating them where necessary so as not to lose collections.

Visitor numbers have bounced back strongly since Covid but Kew is continuing work on its diversity agenda to reach all communities within the UK and overseas and they discuss developments on the educational front.

As for the future, fundraising will be key with significant developments in the pipeline. Chief among these is a "carbon-neutral Palm House", an expansion of the Mediterranean Garden and a "'Carbon Garden' or possibly a 'Climate Change Garden', we're still debating the name of it" where the connection between carbon and nature can be explored.

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Financier 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 the loss of his daughter.

Ben set about rewilding his farm, nature became a vital source of meaning and hope.

He tells us what the term rewilding means to him and tackles Alan Titchmarsh's comments that appear to be opposed to rewilding.

He explains his comments on the Border Target Operator Model, where he wrote in the FT: "Anything which makes it more difficult to import naff, exotic flowers and other plants into Britain is good news in my opinion. 

"There’s plenty to buy in garden centres without the imported potted plants which offer nothing to wildlife, look like something from the 1980s, often spread beyond the garden in which they’re planted, and sometimes bring parasites or disease."

He says there's a risk about "naff" exotics and recommends meadow plants and crab apples instead.

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This 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 went to the Saxifraga national collection holder, Adrian Young.

Gill explains the way the people qualify to have their plant collection included under the Plant Heritage umbrella and how overlapping collections in different parts of the country may collaborate to best preserve individual specimens and collections. And where collection holders may, for a variety of reasons, be unable to continue preserving the collection, the importance of succession planning comes to the fore.

In 2016 Plant Heritage launched the Missing Genera campaign which highlights a list of plant groups that are missing and hopefully encourage would-be plant collection holders to consider developing one. This year the focus is pollinating plants and includes, among others Cactus, Collocasia, Elaeagnus and Osmanthus.

"Our conservation team do some amazing work ensuring succession plans, working with collection holders to get what succession plans they can in place to keep plants safe for the future."

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Ahead 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 the beginning of a really exciting new curve".

A career-changer, Neil left a job in the civil service to pursue a career in something he had "always been fascinated in", plants. He started as a gardener and "It was only when I came to Knoll that we also decided that we would need to run a nursery in order to be able to afford the garden."

He talks about the challenges of setting up the nursery from scratch and building a customer base. In days when "the web was just a glint", the main marketing outlet was flower shows and Neil recalls "I spent a fifth of the year in hotel rooms". RHS Chelsea Flower Show, in those days, was worth "a year's worth of advertising".

Neil reflects on how the business negotiated the pandemic and how trade has been since and into the future.

HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby and Neil discuss how important it is to have a "flow of new plants...something fresh in our offering all the time" so "we don't rely too heaviily on too few genetically similar plants". They talk new introductions among the grasses that Knoll specialises in and the importance of grasses in the garden and across the globe, the subject of Neil's latest "comprehensive" book, 'Grasses for Gardens and Landscapes' published by Timber Press.

An RHS council member for many years, Neil offers his view on the RHS strategy and how the charity should balance its work for communities, shows and science into the future.

"At it's heart it's about people who like plants...primarily about people and plants rather than plants."

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Flower 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 truly worked it out we weren't actually making money and this is why there are not so many exhibitors at shows." 

He used to spend shows "sleeping in the van round the back" but now stays in hotels.

For the future, he says: "I think the big shows like Hampton Court, Tatton Park are going to be the ones that are going to suffer. I would like to see personally the smaller county flower shows, the agricultural shows getting their flower tents back." 

He began his career at Ingwersens, a specialist nursery in the Sussex countryside but when that came to an end he went to Chysanthemums Direct, the retail side of family nursery R F Lawrence and Sons which has been growing cut flowers since 1958.

"[It is] pretty well the only [large scale] chrysanthemum grower in the UK" - they grow about 1.4m cut flowers a year, mostly for supermarkets.

"Chrysanthemums have gone in and out of favour, but people have come to realise they are good value plants...I think at the moment they are on the up."

He talks about the cost price pressures facing all growers, in particular glasshouse heating, packaging and postage costs: "It's difficult to squeeze an extra couple of more pence per stem from the people we supply to."

Flint says he "will miss the people more than the hard work" but doesn't rule out making a guest appearance here and there and plans to pay a little more attention to his own garden in retirement.

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In the fifth of HortWeek's News In Focus podcasts, we take a deep dive on Groundsfest trade show, with technical editor Sally Drury, horticultural consultant Howard Drury and senior reporter, Rachael Forsyth.

Topics this week:

• The trio, who judged the Groundsfest awards, hosted and guested on panels, enthuse about the depth and breadth of the show, which caters for grounds maintenance, landscape contracting, arb and turf contractors. 

• Highlights among the award-winning products and kit, and some of the machines they think should have entered for awards, but didn't.

• How Groundsfest is driving innovation, healthy competition, and is the perfect showcase for product manufacturers and practitioners across the whole of the landscape maintenance sector and beyond.
• 
  

See all HortWeek's Groundsfest coverage including exclusive videos or products and industry panels at https://www.hortweek.com/groundsfest

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At 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, supplied plants for Hamptons Mediterranean Garden at the 2023 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. These included structural shrubs and trees including a 1800-year-old Punica granatum - and other "serious specimens" sourced from Italy in January. Coaxing the Punica into flower in this year's rather cold, wet spring was a particular challenge:

"We don't have 14m-tall glasshouses so we try to create a microclimate within the nursery - we put them inetween buildings to create the warmth and a good feed".

He discusses the benefits to nurseries of supplying Chelsea show gardens though he admits "I can say there's no benefits health-wise! The stress and strain of being involved insuch a show is vast." On the upside, it bestows, of course invaluable prestige and publicity.

Mediterranean is "a big part" of what Creepers does and naturally the nursery is having to pay close attention to the threat of Xylella fastidiosa, which has ravaged olive and other hosts in countries like Italy and Portugal.

As a result, says Michael, "we have an 'open door' policy [with Defra], we have Defra in once- a week; we are very much on board with them coming in whenever them want. They take create care with imported plants and liaising with clients. "Xylella is bigger than the whole industry, as soon as it comes into the UK, there are big problems".

Import-related issues include delays in hauliers, phyto-sanitary checks slowing down supplies but he says the key is planning and communication through all parts of the supply chain through to the customer.

He talks about shifts in plant fashions and discusses the plants currently in high demand.

In common with the rest of the sector, Creepers Nursery is wrestling with the transition to peat-free growing. Michael talks about how they are approaching it as the mooted peat ban deadline of 2026 nears.

On the skills shortage, Michael sums it up as "challenging" and he explores some of the reasons for it, the way Creepers are handling it and what might help ease the crisis for horticulture. 

As for the future, Michael is looking at bridging his elite-level footballing past with his horticultural present with the idea of Creepers becoming "a centre of excellence" in training relative newcomers to horticulture to "make sure our horticultural standards are the highest they can be at all times".

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This 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 pride in the work that we do".

"I've always felt soil was pretty much the forgotten natural element alongside air and water. Certainly in terms of the amount of monitoring and the amount of guidance and protection it's given it's minimal compared with the other two and at last it's finally being recognised."

He discusses soil compaction, still "the biggest negative impact on soils from the whole construction process" but he is encouraged "they are now taking greater notice of it" with changes to the kit and ways of working used by operatives on building sites.

For back gardens he advises an increase in top soil layers from the old standard 100mm to 300mm, which he says not only good for the environment but for business: "For every garden that doesnt work properly, you have an unhappy home owner ...but multiply it nationwide and imagine the loss of water attenuation we have created.

"If you invest in these things ... as a developer you're not having problems with having to retrofit drainage, take down fences, re-do turfing and all the bad social media and publicity that comes with that."

He talks in fascinating depth about his work on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic park and athletes village, an extensive, high profile and complex job which he has been reviewing to see how the soil has performed and to extract any learnings.

He defends the use of oft-maligned "manufactured topsoil" and how it enables the soil to work as a functioning soil from day one, to support not only plant growth but in time a whole community of fauna.

The soils at the Olympic park now "look feel and smell like natural top soils with all the humic acids working. The earthworm populations are phenomenal!"

"These man-made soils aren't short-term products that need to be replaced or enhanced. The whole aim of a manufactured soil is to be sustainable both in terms of its components that are used (there should be recycled or recovered components), but secondly, they shouldn't be any more demand on resources than a natural soil. In many respects they should be better than a natural soil."

As with all aspects of horticulture, soil is suffering the impacts of climate change, but Tim explains how "vitally important" soils are in terms helping slow its progress: "Soils are the biggest terrestrial carbon sink on earth - there's more carbon stored in the ground that above ground in the forests and so on". He outlines initiatives such as "minimum" and now "zero tillage" approaches.

He discusses the role of Government in protecting soils and outlines the various initiatives to influence and take action on soils in the construction and farming sectors.

Other projects include work on HS2 where among other things, Tim is helping use vast quantities of spoil excavated will be used to create one "of the biggest calcareous grasslands in the country".

"Optimising the soil function and the value of soils is the key message and we can all do our bit to achieve that".

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Garden 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 boyband") and enjoying "everything that is a daydream for this tall person".

Donegan was impressed with the young blood coming through at Windsor and the standard of entries by 16 year olds into adult categories: "Who or what is behind the scenes who is making this happen with a new generation?" he asks.

The conversation turns to the skills shortage the need for change in the industry to attract young people. He lauds the YPHA (Young People in Horticulture Association) as an organisation enabling "young people speaking to the elders about how change might happen". What is needed, he says, is "for it not to be perceived as an industry where you have an old man in a potting shed - it's now changing and very much for the better".

Peter tells Rachael Forsyth about some of his standout projects including a school's garden at Mercy College, Sligo, where the regulation "raised beds" were ditched a more adventurous concept and something not in line with "how the adults see things" but "what the younger minds actually want".

Another highlight was a flying visit to the Melbourne International Flower Garden Show where he "strolled in like one of the Bee Gees" and won Gold for his show garden with a project that converted "daydream to equation and only ever appeared like a daydream". The Bamstone garden included a feature that aspired to give the illusion of walking on water; Peter gives full credit to the growers and contractors who helped make it a reality.

He discusses the emotion involved in explaining some of the heartbreaking back-story of the garden and talks about how emotion enters into many of his TV gardens to provide escapism and disguise the "equations" required to produce the "daydreams".

At the time of recording Peter was set to give an online lecture to 1600 landscape architects and designers from Ukraine alongside other high profile designers from the UK where he hopes the talk will provide a temporary distraction from the ongoing conflict.

Peter also celebrates his company gaining SGD membership where his project list was examined in detail: "It transpires for about four years solid all I had done was TV gardens, French castles and show gardens... I apologise for that and getting above my station, again!"

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HortWeek 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 peat free composts, now the ban date of 2026 for professional growers has been announced.

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Henri 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
• Numbers
• Systemisation
• Culture

After working for other companies but not enjoying it, he set up own business, but after 4 years of rapid growth the company went under. The realisation that there was very little advice to help the unique challenges faced by arboriculture businesses inspired him to pass on his learning to others in the profession.

Henri believes a lot of arborists "get stuck" doing all aspects of running the business but need to learn to "build a team" around them where people work to their strengths.

Arborists have to contend with the requirement for extensive training, versus the "low bar to entry into the industry - anybody can buy a van a chipper and a saw from B&Q" and competition with other trades such as construction or even working in McDonalds.

He discusses the issue of poor pay in the sector and how "there needs to be more education" of the public of the skills and need for qualified arborists to do the work.

But he says: "Knowing your numbers, so knowing what it costs to run your business, knowing what profit to make on top if it, knowing your quote conversion rate...once you have all this data it gives you the confidence to be able to go, 'ok I can put my prices up now'"

Henri speaks about the ways he tries to attract and retain staff by making his company "a good place to work with various financial and other benefits such as mental health packages, something that he values especially having suffered his own fair share of professional hardship.

He highlights pest and disease pressures, particularly ash dieback and oak processionary moth which is making its way down south east, through London to Southampton where Henri is based. He also discusses the online problems of climate change and extreme heat and storms.

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Plant 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 like Sir Harold Hillier and Roy Lancaster were early inspirations, but it was Peter Dummer, the great Hillier propagator and plant breeder who was his biggest influence. He showed and monitored Moore in the skill of plant breeding so he made my first hybrid Pete Dummer came up with the name Aztec Pearl, possibly his greatest success. The first hybrid of the genus launched at Chelsea in 1989.

He talks about how he has spent hundreds of hours plant breeding. All the stamens are carefully removed before pollinating and the flowers are covered with a pollinating bag. Nothing is left to chance.

The most rewarding of the plants he has raised is Choisya White Dazzler, is available at most garden centres in the UK, listed in the RHS Plant Finder and sold in the EU.

Moore discusses the state of British plant breeding, Brexit, peat, what Chelsea winners are still around, how he markets plants and the help John

Hedger, Neil Alcock, Charles Carr, Plantipp and Genesis have given for the 45 plants he has raised over the years.

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Harrowden 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 part of campaigns such as 'No Mow May' are hot topic and he gives us his views.

And finally, Harrowden Turf has a partnership with rural mental health charity You Are Not Alone (YANA) and the importance of that is also brought up.

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Horticulturist 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, as well as his myriad roles in community and professional gardening in the UK and overseas.

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Alistair 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 still has a crucial role to play in biosecurity:

"At the end of the day we're dealing with a wicked problem...we can only really improve the situation rather than really solve it, and the more people that get on board, the risk is minimised."

He outlines scheme's importance to the industry and Defra and how the certification works.

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Melanie Asker was recently promoted to managing director of Greenwood Plants, supplier to new-build property sector, but increasingly, commercial work and infrastructure.

Listed at no 27 in HortWeek's Top 100 Ornamentals Nurseries ranking, the nursery grows "pretty much everything you can think of" but, a 'G' range comprising the "top 350 plants across most of our orders".

2022 was a record-breaking year for the grower, a year when it changed from an owner-led firm and introduced a management team, developed a new business strategy, a 5-year growth plan and brought sustainability "to the fore of all our corporate values and all we wanted to achieve".

While nurseries and garden retailers continue to wrestle with the prospect of going peat-free, Greenwood Plants made an early decision to get ahead of the curve and has plans to be 100% peat free by the end of 2023:

"It's progressing really well. It's got its challenges, I'm going to be totally candid about that. It was a really big decision for the business - we debated it really heavily at the start of last year... We decided we needed to be completely committed to it for it to work so we had to jump in with both feet which is what we've done."

"It sounds like the change is all about the growing media... but the bigger change is about how we cultivate and grow our plants, that's where the real, resetting of the mindset comes in and that's what we're going through at the moment." With ericaceous and other plants that struggle with peat-free compost, "we just have to tackle them one by one", she says.

She also reflects on the move to peat-free in the context of the general horticulture sector, clients, the supply chain and the wider marketplace. 

• Watch HortWeekTV's Peat debate which explores all sides of the argument here 

Greenwood was named "Sustainable Business of 2022" by the Central South Business Awards, largely down to Greenwood's comprehensive and ambitious sustainability plan which incorporates water efficiency, recycling, peat-free, community 'payback', energy efficiency and renewables, plastic reduction and sustainable packaging.

The nursery has also placed a greater focus on biodiversity benefits lately and in a fast-changing world, the nursery endeavours to "keep abreast of everything from a topical and trend perspective" maintains "as open lines of communication as possible" with clients to help them do that.

Melanie outlines other business initiatives including "Greenwood Choice" sales and collection outlet and speaks about her enthusiastic involvement as a founding member of Women in Horticulture which aims to provide networking opportunities for women in the industry and share ideas.

And finally, she has to make her choice, from a very wide selection, of her Desert Island Plant.

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Welcome to the third of HortWeek's new stream of podcasts where we give the HortWeek take on the biggest news stories. This week editor Matthew Appleby, technical editor Sally Drury, horticultural consultant Howard Drury and digital content manager Christina Taylor chew over the week's top stories.

Topics this week:

• the latest cabinet and Defra reshuffle and what it might mean for horticulturists.
• Four Oaks Trade Show judges Sally and Howard give their expert insight into award-winning products and plants from this year's show. 

Do check out our huge archive of HortWeek Podcast interviews with an unrivalled selection of prominent and fascinating figures from all corners of the horticulture sector.

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Eliot Barden headed a field of 15 to win AIPH young international grower of the year at IPM Essen in January.

But at the start of his career, which began at the age of 15 with an RHS evening class, some teachers were not encouraging about his prospects (a not uncommon experience for many in the sector} and one which informed his current role as production and education manager for mature tree supplier Majestic Trees.

"Not everybody is cut out for an office job. I think people that show interest [in the outside world and the environment] need to be encouraged into it and I think that's through careers advisors, teachers developing people, maybe even including horticulture on the curriculum."

He discusses ideas for promoting horticulture careers including more Government support for apprenticeships and more support for sector training and recruitment:

Eliot is frank about the impact of the forthcoming peat ban for which horticulture has suffered a lack of support and "joined up thinking":

"At Majestic we've done regular [peat-free growing] trials for the past 10 years now...and we still don't have answers", adding, "we're certainly going to have to reduce the number of plant species we can grow". There are also particular challenges affecting tree-growing and transport that he outlines.

• Watch HortWeekTV's Peat debate which explores all sides of the argument here 

Majestic Trees has had its own, widely-publicised issues with biosecurity and Defra's handling of it, and Eliot gives his take on the situation:

"There's no two ways about it, the nursery trade does spread the diseases, but at the same time we've got to be really pragmatic about the threat, the diseases that are being transmitted, and how they're dealt with".

Not all nurseries are equal in how they source, inspect and treat diseases and and "some form of accreditation" should be given "to the good guys" and irresponsible nurseries "stopped somehow", he argues. Plant Healthy is "a step in the right direction" but "could do with some reevaluation".

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Peat-free and peat-reduced growing media may lack beneficial microbes to promote break down of plant residues, improve soil carbon and pH; and help to provide plants with available nutrients throughout the season. 

ICL's technical controls manager Sam Rivers explains that the microbial inoculant Vitalnova Triboost consists of a population of beneficial microbes. It contains enzymes and three live cultures of Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecium and Lactobacillus plantarum – all freeze-dried.

TriBoost treated plants saw better rooting and were ready for sale 2-3 weeks earlier.

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Trees for Cities is a charity that helps facilitate tree planting in urban contexts but as recently-appointed chief executive , Kate Sheldon explains, the benefits are wide-ranging and sometimes surprising:

"Some of the biggest risks in cities [are] around heat and flooding and I believe that as an urban tree planting charity we can have more impact in planting for those risks and for the social value of what we do, rather than the carbon". 

She explains how the charity helps local communities, schools and parks plant trees in their area and the care taken to ensure the right tree is planted in the right place as well as considering the maintenance and longevity of the trees.

"We tend to plant where there is less than 20% tree canopy cover...but we also look for places where people might be facing barriers to engaging with nature."

She talks about their campaign "Trees Breathe New Life" - launched on the 'Forgotten Places' project which targeted places with few trees and which face socio-economic difficulties and where trees are seen as a "nice to have". It provides training for people to "open people's eyes to the opportunities" in the green sector, help with people's mental health and also help address issues such as climate change and how "trees can be part of the solution". In this way, Kate says Trees for Cities can be part of addressing the skills shortage by inspiring young people into the industry through their tree planting experiences.

On the controversial topic of street tree felling (famously in Sheffield and more recently, Plymouth) Kate says: "I am appalled...there are very few design schemes that can't be worked around existing trees...I don't think you can use that as an excuse for felling so many mature trees."

She talks about Government tree planting targets and challenges sourcing suitable, and healthy trees.

And she touches on trees' contribution to efforts to improve biodiversity and talks about plans for the future: "the real area we can have the most impact is around engaging communities" and a new community engagement strategy will be her focus, recruiting new leaders at the charity and security funding, ideally through new major donors, patrons and ambassadors.

Having planted more than 1.5 million trees, the charity says there are many more opportunities for planting more, though the familiar barriers of planning, avoiding street services and money still persist.

"[Local authorities] don't always have the capacity to be managing the trees they've currently got, let alone planting new trees, so sometimes that can lead to some cultural or capacity barriers to planting....but where there's a will, there's a way!".

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