Persian Gardens by Souren Ala

Iran’s long history includes ancient civilizations, the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sasanian empires, and the eventual Islamic conquest in the 7th century AD. The country’s location on the old silk route between east and west meant that different influences played a part in the habits of the country. The geography includes mountain chains and rivers but […]

The Darien, Orchids, Terrorists and Kidnappings by Glenn Duggan

Panama is home to a wide variety of plants including more than 14,000 species of orchid and their national flower is the Holy Ghost Orchid, Peristeria Elata. Other orchids include Lady of The Night with a powerful scent and the orange Spanish Flag Orchid which grows on the ground and is up to 1 metre […]

Big Ideas for Small Spaces by Martyn Cox

The talk was concerned with the styles of gardens that Martyn recommends would fit into small spaces. He had been in horticulture since leaving schooland had contributed many articles to the Mail on Sunday, was on Channel 4 programmes, Shopping TV and Radio Solent. He has written eleven books on gardening, one of them being […]

Bhutan – Kingdom of Rare Plants by Rosemary Legrand

Rosemary has a strong horticultural background, coming from a horticultural family and being a former nursery owner.  Her late father was a hybridist of azaleas and rhododendrons and she had the honour of presenting a collection of his Azaleas to the late Queen Elizabeth II.  Rosemary has travelled to many parts of the world and […]

Creating a Winter Garden by Mark Porter

Mark Porter has a 7 acres meadow garden near the A33, and their garden was on the front cover of “English Garden” magazine in 1991  with a caption “Fire & Ice”.  “What can we use to create a garden that looks good in Winter ?”  : Shrubs with evergreen foliage (Eleagnus x ebbingel “Limelight”, Prunus […]

The Road to Winchester by Pip Bensley

The talk detailed the creation and organisation of the Winchester Flower Festival for which Pip was named Creative Director in February 2019. The talk was accompanied by a series of slides.   The festival proceeds were to be in aid of the Winchester Cathedral Organ and the title of this particular festival was called ‘Resonance’. Initially there was […]

Lainston House Kitchen Garden by Stef Bradfield

Stef has been the Head Kitchen Gardener at Lainston House for 3 years and 3 months, having joined in July 2021.  The Kitchen Garden had been established for 17 years but had been left unattended for 3 months when Stef joined.  It took her 3 weeks to weed it all!  At that time there was […]

Where the Wild Flowers Grow by Leif Bersweden

With a premise that plants need the same help as animals but can’t move, Leif wanted to be connecting people with plants so that they could capture the joy and excitement of plants and to dispel the attitude that plants are boring. Having found that botany books weren’t very helpful Leif embarked on a year […]

Gilbert White 300 by Chris Bird

Gilbert White was a clergyman, naturalist, ornithologist and ecologist born in July 1720 at the vicarage in Selborne. In 1728 his family moved to “The Wakes” in Selborne and apart from his time in various parishes he lived there for the rest of his life. Over the years the house was greatly extended and is […]