Each week we talk to RHS experts, along with garden designers, scientists, growers, and the movers and shakers of the horticultural world
Our award-winning Gardening with the RHS podcast offers seasonal advice, inspiration and practical solutions to gardening questions.Trusted gardening professionals give you the latest horticultural advice, scientific research and tried-and-tested techniques to bring out the best in your garden.Listen to the lastest episodes or subscribe for all episodes.
In this episode, RHS Science & Horticulture Editor Olivia Drake joins us to explain why the common primrose is an essential early source of nectar for pollinators. We also explore the powerful role gardens can play in our own health and wellbeing. The RHS has just launched a new science-backed Wellbeing Blueprint, designed to help anyone create a garden that actively supports wellbeing. Ashby Sachs and Vicky Shearing, who worked on the project, join us to talk about what the research reveals, and how we can all put those insights into practice. Finally we drop by the World Food Garden at RHS Garden Wisley, where edibles expert Liz Mooney shows us how, where and when to sow peas for a great harvest later in the year.
Useful links: All about primroses | RHS Wellbeing Garden Blueprint | World Food Garden | Grow your own peas
In this episode, we’re leafing through the pages of The Plant Review to explore a simple question: What can we learn from the wild? American horticulturist Daniel J. Hinkley reflects on a lifetime of exploration that has taken him to some of the wildest places on Earth in search of plants. Yet in his article, he turns his attention to a small, unassuming genus growing close to home in Washington State: Coptis. Next, David Pearce, curator of Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, transports us to the cloud-shrouded mountains of Madeira to meet a striking architectural plant found nowhere else in the wild, and one that he’s been successfully cultivating on the Dorset coast. Finally, Sacchi Parasrampuria and James Miller take us to Poon Hill in Nepal, reflecting on a recent plant observation trip and the lessons they brought back from the Himalaya.
Useful links: Subscribe to The Plant Review | Explore Coptis plants | Visit Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens
In this episode, we join gardener and biologist Benny Hawksbee in his rose beds to find out how one small adjustment to the traditional rose pruning method can create vital habitat for a key aphid predator. RHS Garden Wisley’s Liz Mooney tells us about her journey to self-sufficiency and horticulturist Rose Holman guides us through how to cut back your ornamental grasses before the new growth comes through.
Useful links: General tips on rose pruning | Grow Your Own | Cutting back ornamental grasses
In this episode, we head to RHS Garden Wisley to discover how its horticulturists are turning one of the wettest starts to the year on record into a garden that’s primed for spring. Team leader Helen Bensted-Smith shares some top tips for gardening in persistently soggy conditions and explains why increasingly wet winters and dry summers are challenges we need to adapt to rather than battle against. Guy Barter takes us on a seasonal stroll through Oakwood, which is coming into its own at this time of year and has plenty of take-home ideas for gardening in damp shade. Finally, we pop in to see Liam Anderson, who’s hard at work pruning the 75m Wisteria Walk. In just a few months, it will be transformed into a spectacular tunnel of cascading purple and white blooms.
Useful links: Choosing plants for wet and dry soils |Gardening with extremes of weather | Explore Oakwood | Wisteria pruning
In this episode, Digital Science Editor Olivia Drake introduces the RHS Wildlife Wonder plant, the hazel, which not only supplies queen bumblebees with much-needed early pollen, but also provides tasty nuts and abundant leaves to support a huge range of wildlife throughout the year. While it may still be a little early to sow most crops directly outdoors, if you’ve got a greenhouse or warm windowsill, you can get a head start on the growing season. Down at RHS Wisley, Liz Mooney is busy sowing aubergines, sweet peppers and chillies, and she shares her top tips for getting the best from these heat-loving crops. Finally, Professor Ross Cameron from the University of Sheffield, author of Plants Can Save Your Life, joins us to explore the science of plants and wellbeing, and how indoor gardening can play a powerful role in boosting our health.
Useful links: Wildlife wonder: Hazel | Grow Your Own | Award-winning chilli peppers to grow | RHS Bookshelf
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The RHS is the UK’s gardening charity, helping people and plants to grow - nurturing a healthier, happier world, one person and one plant at a time.
