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

Presenter: Gareth Richards, Jenny Laville, Guy Barter

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

Contact: [email protected] 

Links: 

The RHS Urban Show 2024

Pop Culture Planting: Punk Rockery

RHS City Spaces: Cloudspaces

Happy Houseplants with Grow Tropicals

RHS Urban Forest

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

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

Presenter: Gareth Richards

Contributors: Liz Mooney, Joe Dransfield, Roka Brings Flowers

Contact: [email protected] 

Links: 

How to grow peas

How to grow radishes

Cynara cardunculus Cardoon

The Newt in Somerset – an RHS Partner Garden

Roka Brings Flowers

RHS Urban Show

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

Presenter: Gareth Richards

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

Contact: [email protected] 

Links: 

RHS Garden Rosemoor

How to grow parsnips

How to grow shallots 

How to grow potatoes

F1 Hybrids

Shrouded in Light

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

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: James Lawrence, Jack Aldridge 

Links: 

Oakwood at RHS Garden Wisley

How to grow tomatoes

How to grow beetroot

How to grow pumpkins

Stachyurus praecox

Stachyurus chinensis

RHS Gardening advice / ChatBotanist

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

Presenter: Gareth Richards

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

Contact: [email protected] 

Links: 

Bumbles on Blooms 

iNaturalist

Oudolf Landscape

Dividing perennials 

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

Presenter: Guy Barter

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

Contact: [email protected] 

Links:

Greener Gardening Containers

RHS Plant Finder

Plant Heritage: National Plant Collections 

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

Presenter: Gareth Richards

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

Contact: [email protected] 

Links:

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

Endless Forms by Serian Sumner

Shrubby Hydrangeas 

The Garden Magazine

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

Presenter: Guy Barter

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

Contact: [email protected]

Links:

How to grow tomatoes

Tomato blight

Gardening with Colour at Coton Manor

An Almost Impossible Thing

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

Presenter: Guy Barter

Contributors: Andy Lewis, Jenny Laville, James Armitage

Contact: [email protected]

Links:

Apples and pears: winter gardening

The Newt in Somerset – an RHS Partner Garden

Allotments: getting started

RHS Practical Latin for Gardeners

Untangling Latin Names

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

Presenter: Gareth Richards

Contributors: James Armitage and Hilary Collins

Contact: [email protected]

Links:

Mediterranean garden plants

RHS hardiness ratings

Hardy Eucalyptus (Grafton Nursery)

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

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

Presenters: Gareth Richards & James Armitage

Contributors: Roy Lancaster, Grahame Ware, and Jack Aldridge

Links:

Shrubby honeysuckle

Flowering dogwood