HortWeek Podcast

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 enzyme...

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 soc...

Director of the Landscaping Consultants, BALI South Thames chair and board director Jake Catling is a landscaper who brings genuine drive and enthusiasm to his work. In this episode Jake talks about the excitement and challenges of working on two RHS  Chelsea Flower Show  gardens and provides fascinating insight into the process of putting together a Chelsea garden from the contractor's...

This episode Glendale's director of corporate development Adrian Wickham and Tessa Johnstone of Johnstone's Landscapes return to the  Horticulture Week Podcast  to give us an update on their important work on improving diversity in horticulture industry. Both members of the BALI board, they joined various industry associations to sign Equality Diversity and Inclustion (EDI) charter last...

Primrose Hall Peonies' Alec White is an RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medal award-winning British specialist peony grower and holds the Plant Heritage National Collection for unusual Intersectional or Itoh peony varieties. He has also written a new book  A Love Affair With Peonies,  which involved five years of nationwide travel to photograph peonies in bloom. White talks about meeti...

In this bumper episode, BALI Grand Award winners, Maylim managing director and owner Thomas O'Mahony, and business development director Alistair Bayford reflect on the accomplishment and the project that won them the top honours.  O'Mahony puts the win down to the complex logistics of the Exchange Square project, which sits on a podium above Liverpool Street Station. He and Bayford explore th...

This week, Jo Davey of Whartons Roses joins the Horticulture Week Podcast and speaks about the rose market, trends, new promotions, supply and demand and sustainability. Recently. after 35 years at the helm of Whartons Garden Roses,  managing director Robert Wharton has become chairman , stepping aside for Paul Wharton to take on the role of managing director. Supporting Paul, in the new role...

ICL technical manager Sam Rivers talks to HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby about ChatGPT, an new artificial intelligence chatbot that could be useful for answering horticultural questions. Rivers explains how queries are answered by ChatGPT and what the benefits and concerns are and whether the programme has a role for professionals. He live tests ChatGPTs knowledge of biostimulants, fertilisers an...

This week's Horticulture Week Podcast welcomes Burpee Seeds' sales and marketing director Simon Crawford and commercial director Andrew Mellowes. Burpee Europe’s focus on the breeding and development of new varieties of vegetables, fruit and flowers for the home gardener market has seen the team enjoy a steady rise in seed sales and has provoked a need for larger premises. Andrew Mellowes, formerl...

Marking International Women's Day this episode hears from arborist and World Champion tree climber, Jo Hedger. One of still relatively few women in the sector, she talks about the myriad challenges of running a business -Arbor Venture Tree Care - and avoiding getting trapped in the office. But from early in her career, Hedger found a passion and skill for climbing trees and is now a 6-times Europe...

Garden designer Camellia Taylor came to the discipline via work with young people on the autism spectrum, women that had experienced domestic violence and a Masters in speech and language therapy. During a career break prompted by the birth of her two children she began to connect her interest in psychology with nature and a passion for plants. She went on to study for her RHS Level 2 and a g...

New HTA president Alan Down talks about high priority issues in horticulture such as biosecurity and peat in the latest HortWeek podcast. The former Cleeve Nursery garden centre owner, writer and TV and radio broadcaster, studied at Cannington and Pershore. He has worked in Germany, for Hillier and on a Nuffield farming scholarship. He and wife Felicity founded Cleeve Nursery 40 years ago and sold...

New Garden Centre Association chief executive Peter Burks backs an upbeat economic forecast from the recent GCA conference by economist  Roger Martin-Fagg . From a well-known garden retail family, Burks looks forward to the 2023 season as one that will see the sector return to normal. The former Sanders, Wyevale and Blue Diamond manager speaks about how in recent weeks for the first time...

As Apprenticeship Week (6-12 February) approaches, Rachael Forsyth talks to two landscape maintenance apprentices who work for  i dverde in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Adam James is extra works team leader' and Mark Skinner, South park team leader as part of  i dverde's apprentice program. [Both have worked for  i dverde for a number of years but due to other commitm...

This week head of masterplanning Julian Tollast and David Hughes, estate landscape manager tell us about the transformation of Wembley Park which has given the area around the eponymous stadium an ''urban arboretum" and includes far more extensive and varied green space than people may realise. One of London’s largest development schemes of recent times, the long-neglected neighbourhood received m...

Kew's Joe Richomme on popularising botanical words, career changing, how to get into the industry, what peonies and alternative grasses to plant,  Richomme is a botanical horticulturist based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Working primarily with temperate plants, he is responsible for Kew’s living collections of grasses and peonies. With Emma Townshend, he has written  Kew&...

Signify's commercial leader horticulture UK and Ireland Nathanael Dannenberg talks about coping with the energy crisis and how to use light strategy to keep lights shining when prices are at their lowest. Signify, formerly known as Philips Lighting, says growers who go with innovation will thrive more. Government funds and grants are explained as more and more growers are seeing that extending the...

Horticulturist and garden writer Barbara Segall, editor of The Horticulturist, the quarterly journal of The Chartered Institute of Horticulture and a well-known gardening author, is the guest on this HortWeek podcast. Segall talks about the importance of networking, particularly post-lockdown. She discusses her new book Secret Gardens of the South East  and what her approach is to f...

Having grown up exploring the Scottish countryside, Carol Adams’ interest in forestry grew into a horticulture qualification. Around eight years ago, this brought her to Trentham, a 725 acres estate in Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire.  With influence from Capability Brown, the gardens have seen many evolutions over the years, most recently, the likes of Tom Stuart-Smith, Piet Oudolf, and Nige...

Provender Nurseries MD Richard McKenna has more than 20 years expereince supplying nursery stock to landscapers. After a couple of rollercoaster years he looks into his crystal ball to predict trade in 2023. On the big issue of biosecurity , he worries that the Government is becoming more detached from the industry and he wonders why nurseries aren;t given compensation when they have to destroy st...

Julian Ives, of Dragonfli, supplier of natural pest control, pollination and microbial based horticultural products to retail, amenity and professional horticulture, has written a new book Biologocal Pest Control, published by Crowood, taking his profeessional knowledge and giving it to the consumer. Ives, formerly of Koppert, talks about the efficacy of naturals, application,...

Horticulture charity Perennial  - the UK's only charity dedicated to helping all those working in or retired from horticulture and their families - has released the latest of its ever-popular Naked Gardening Calendar, back after a two-year hiatus. Two of its 'stars' join Rachael Forsyth on this week's podcast. Baring all for the cause is Paul Greenyer, a landscaper based in West Sussex, a med...

Nick Hamilton, of Barnsdale Gardens in Rutland, has written an autobiography,  The Right Genes , about his relationship with his father Geoff Hamiton, the pioneer in peat-free organic gardening, who presented BBC Gardeners World for 17 years. They worked together for several years before Geoff’s untimely death in 1996. Nick talks about why Geoff is still recalled so fondly and how a...

Sam Rivers of ICL and Sean Loakes of Syngenta talk to HortWeek editor Matthew Appleby about the new launch Mainspring, a broad spectrum insecticide for the ornamentals industry. They describe what this major new product is, the pests it controls, considerations for use and how to build Mainspring into an IPM programme. The insecticide has proven effective against both caterpillars and thrips which...

Rose expert Daniel Myhill is treasurer of the 350-member Rose Society and national collection holder for persica roses. Unusually for a HortWeek podcast, he's not a professional horticulturist, but he is an example of a new passion for roses among younger people. The geotechnical engineer says myths about roses being difficult to look after need scotching. One of his mentors, Chris Warner, is an e...