HortWeek Podcast

Having recently been awarded an MBE for his contributions to landscape architecture, garden design, and heritage, Andrew Wilson speaks to HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby about what this means to him personally, but also what it means for the industry. He talks about his teaching career and how, as director of garden design studies at London College of Garden Design, he is seeing more students come...

Set up as an independent charity in 1992, The Parks Trust was granted 999-year leases for 4,500 acres of green space land in Milton Keynes, and an endowment in the form of freehold ownership of income-generating commercial properties valued at £22 million. Deputy chief executive of The Parks Trust, Hannah Bodley explains the benefits of this model.  Head of operations and forestry at The Park...

HortWeek's podcast about peat-free standards was recorded at the Garden Press Event with Evergreen Garden Care, Durston's, Westland, Melcourt, Southern Trident, Responsible Sourcing Scheme, Growing Media Association and  Treasure. Speakers in order are: 1: 20 - Simon Blackhurst with Durston's, Treasure Gardening and the Growing Media Association 5: 03 - Colin Stephens of Evergreen Garden Care...

With the celebration of its 90th year and announcement of a brand refresh, this week the Grounds Management Association (GMA) talks to HortWeek about what this means for members.  Jason Booth, chief operating officer of the GMA and Jennifer Carter, director of communications & marketing at the GMA also explore some of the challenges facing the turf sector with a recent GMA survey showing...

HortWeek spoke toa range of industry experts at IPM Essen trade show 2025 on how to export. Andy Jeanes of Guernsey Clematis says planning, procedure and relationships with customs and shipping agents and phyto inspectors are the keys to successful exporting. The USA could become an issue. Soiless plants are air freighted to the US but there are concerns about 25% Trump import levies, as...

On this week’s HortWeek Podcast Stuart Mackley, head of grounds for Fulham Football Club's home ground at Motspur Park, explains how he found a career in groundscare through a love of football.  As well as explaining what it is like at Fulham in the lead up to matches, Mackley relates what the team get up to in the off season which he says is “our busiest period…the most important”. The weath...

Cosmos and hollyhocks national collection holder  Jonathan Sheppard  and dahlia and sweet pea grower  Darren Everest discuss whether flower show judges should reward homegrown, sustainable plants, rather than give medals for uniformity. Everest said at RHS shows you compete for medals and not against other growers as you would at a sweet pea show. But the public "want to see perfect...

Ben raskin and Andy Dibben have written  Silvohorticulture ,  A Grower's Guide To Integrating Trees Into Crops published in January 2025 by Chelsea Green Publishing. Raskin is head of horticulture and agroforestry for the Soil Association and Dibben is head grower at Abbey Home Farms in Gloucestershire. They say interactions between trees and crops is an under-investigated area and that...

Having been in the landscape industry for over 53 years Alan Sargent is regularly commissioned to either take part in, or organise job interviews and recruit new senior and head gardeners. On this week’s HortWeek Podcast Sargent takes us through some real life questions produced by himself for a recent interview for a head gardener. Beginning with advice on what to wear and bring to an interview S...

Sean Higgs, of Floralive, is the foremost authority on peat-free cultivation of carnivorous plants.  In this  HortWeek Podcast  he discusses his path growing peat-free plants which grow in peat in the wild,and the future of the houseplant market. After the bounce delived by the John Lewis 2023 Christmas venus flytrap advert he relates how that has continued to make the plant dominan...

New HTA president Will Armitage started his career at The Barton Grange Group at Woodford Garden Centre before joining family business Armitage & Sons (Seeds) where he eventually became joint managing director. He was chair of the Garden Centre Association from 2014 to 2016 and says the big difference between now and then are the costs of employing people, which have risen 10% again he believe...

Chris Hull, one of the stars of BBC One's Garden Rescue, is a rising gardening star, working with Charlie Dimmock and Alan Titchmarsh as the new face of garden makeovers. He got his first gardening job was when he was 15 at a country house hotel in Devon, and studied at Duchy College and for a garden design degree at Sparsholt College.  Hull believes schools' thinking about horticulture as a...

Crop technician Ross Dyke has a new project called Get Children Growing. He's a Plant Pod host and works at Bonterre CIC alternative education establishment near Worcester, teaching horticulture skills. An unassuming networker, he is also studying at Pershore College and is a Colegrave Seabrook and IPPS scholar. He left school at 14 and worked in various jobs before moving to Webbs Garden Centres...

In the hot summer of 2022, RBG Kew lost more than 400 trees. By July 2024, Kew announced that it believed  over 50% of its trees could be at risk by 2090 due to environmental changes due to climate change. This week's guest is Kevin Martin, head of tree collections at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and he joined the HortWeek Podcast to relate the research Kew has done that led it to such a st...

Kate Ashbrook is an author and has been the general secretary of the Open Spaces Society for 40 years and counting, but she is first and foremost, a campaigner. On this week's HortWeek Podcast she recounts some of the best changes she has seen during her tenure - "the greater awareness of the importance of open spaces for the public and the greater awareness among the public of the importance to t...

HortWeek presents The End of Peat , a new four-part podcast series that will hear from leading horticulturists and garden retailers as they navigate a transition to peat-free that is piling pressure on a sector facing stresses on all sides. Over the four episodes, Christina Taylor explores the story of the UK peat ban, how the horticulture industry is facing up to the challenge, and how it might s...

HortWeek presents The End of Peat , a new four-part podcast series that will hear from leading horticulturists and garden retailers as they navigate a transition to peat-free that is piling pressure on a sector facing stresses on all sides. Over the four episodes, Christina Taylor explores the story of the UK peat ban, how the horticulture industry is facing up to the challenge, and how it might s...

HortWeek presents The End of Peat , a new four-part podcast series that will hear from leading horticulturists and garden retailers as they navigate a transition to peat-free that is piling pressure on a sector facing stresses on all sides. Peat is one of the most popular and reliable types of growing media for plants, but peatlands are also a valuable store for carbon and as the UK Government tri...

HortWeek presents The End of Peat , a new four-part podcast series that will hear from leading horticulturists and garden retailers as they navigate a transition to peat-free that is piling pressure on a sector facing stresses on all sides. Peat is one of the most popular and reliable types of growing media for plants, but peatlands are also a valuable store for carbon and as the UK Government tri...

Bob Askew was Garden Media Guild award winner a year ago for his new writer work for Hortweek. He works for Kernock Park Plants as production director and was previously at Darby Nursery Stock and Brinkmans. Here he names his top three tree genera for gardens, three underused tree genera and top five skinny trees for small gardens. He believes the reliance of nurseries and garden centres on too fe...

This week the HortWeek Podcast meets Imogen Bell, supervisor at Thomson's Garden Centre and a YPHA Southeast regional coordinator In her article for HortWeek ' Despite CITES, not all doom and gloom for houseplant sales ' Imogen reflects on how the reinterpretation of CITES "meant practically a third of my stock became unavailable overnight".  One of the "Brexit benefits" often quoted was the...

HortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation and sponsor Westland Horticulture. 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 t...

This week's guests are James Cairncross and Angela Lewis from the Midlands Parks Forum which has its annual conference on the 17th of October at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. Highlights include keynote speaker Dr. William Bird, a GP who contributed to a select committee report on access to green space who will speak on health benefits of physical activity and green spaces....

Both our guests on the HortWeek Podcast broadly agree with the reasons for a peat ban and agree there is a need to reduce carbon emissions to help fight climate change. But they are not equally convinced a peat ban is the way to do it. In the 'for' corner is cosmos and hollyhocks national collection holder and lobbyist Jonathan Sheppard . Sheppard says: "You only have to look at places like Hampto...

ICL's Sam Rivers digs down into Integrated Pest Management and speifically IPM planning. Sam describes what the current situation in the industry is with regards to IPM planning and details the 'hierarchy of control', which includes cultural, biological, physical and chemical methods. He gives examples of the different types of controls and talks about regulations for biological control. Sam...