GROW LONDON’S EXPERTS 2015
Meet the gardening gurus who will be leading the talks and workshops at the fair this June. Buy your tickets online now to ensure you don’t miss tops tips and expert advice from some of the country’s best growers and horticulturalists.
PATTIE BARRON
A renowned garden journalist, Pattie’s regular gardening column appears in the Evening Standard’s Homes & Property.
She also writes features on design and interiors for the section, and contributes to other well known titles including The English Garden and Good Housekeeping. Formerly, Pattie was the beauty editor of Cosmopolitan and the New York Daily News.
ALISON BENJAMIN
As well as writing for the Guardian, co-founding Urban Bees and co-authoring various books on bee-keeping, Alison spends her spare time assisting with courses, writing blogs, giving talks and developing partnerships to encourage communities, councils, businesses and individuals to plant more pollinator friendly foliage in towns and cities. A very busy bee indeed!
THOMAS BROOM
Tom started gardening in childhood, but it was after 15 years in the aviation industry that he decided to follow his dream and enrolled himself a Capel Manor College to learn floristry.
As horticulture manager at the renowned Petersham Nurseries, Tom is passionate about plant provenance and an ardent campaigner for British-grown flowers.
MARK DIACONO
Dwarf kiwis, sweet cicely and chocolate vines are just a few of the exciting crops Mark has grown at his organic Devon smallholding, Otter Farm.
He has also written four award winning books, including ‘A Taste of the Unexpected’, which won the Guild of Food Writers’ Food Book of the Year 2011.
FERGUS GARRETT
Joining Great Dixter as Head Gardener in 1992, Fergus is also Chief Executive of the Great Dixter Charitable Trust and is always striving to take the garden in new and exciting directions.
In addition to his hands-on gardening role at Dixter, Fergus also lectures, writes about gardening and serves on Royal Horticultural Society committees.
THE FLOWER APPRECIATION SOCIETY
Anna Day and Ellie Jauncey are not your average florists. Friends first and business partners later, they formed The Flower Appreciation Society when they realised they shared a love of all things floral and a frustration with the formal arrangements preferred by many traditional florists.
The bouquets and accessories they create in their London studio are relaxed, natural and breathtakingly beautiful - and packed full of seasonal blooms from local markets.
HANDMADE APOTHECARY
Medical Herbalists Victoria Chown & Kim Walker love to reconnect people with the traditional folklore, edible and medicinal uses of the wild plants around us.
They provide walks, workshops and bespoke health and beauty consultations all over London.
AIMEE HARTLEY
A co-founder of wine consultancy 125, Aimee has spent the past decade working for wine brands & distributors in the UK, France and the US, including our Garden Party Charity Preview sponsor Nyetimber.
Whether through events, content creation or writing, her work focuses on finding creative ways to engage people around wine.
ELAINE HUGHES
Elaine is an RHS gold medal award winning landscape designer with a special interest in creating contemporary, wildlife friendly spaces. Elaine got hooked on plants after getting her first garden in the late ’90′s and it wasn’t long before she ditched in her career in television and retrained as a Landscape Architect.
Elaine has since set up her own design practice working on a range of public and private spaces, and runs short courses in wildlife friendly landscape design and gardening.
LAETITIA MAKLOUF
Laetitia has been described as being a green-fingered Nigella, who began her foray into the world of gardening without an actual outdoor garden space.
After studying horticulture at the Chelsea Physic Garden, Laetitia went on to write ‘The Virgin Gardener’ - a Sunday Times and Telegraph Gardening Book of the Year.
CATHERINE MILLER
Catherine facilitates the London Farms and Gardens Show, now in its 17th year and taking place this September. One of a kind, the show celebrates the quirky world of London’s urban farms and gardens. There are a lot more of these in city than you might think and Catherine talk will highlight where they are and what they do.
Catherine is a professional gardener, and has extensive knowledge of London community garden groups and city farms gained over the last 20 years.
JULIANE CAILLOUETTE NOBLE
The School Programme Manager at Jamie Oliver’s Food Foundation, Juliane works to empower primary school teachers to help children learn how to grow food from seed and to cook nutritious meals from scratch.
She hopes to inspire GROW visitors to roll up their sleeves, get stuck in and work together to create something that will change current and future generations’ relationship with food.
GEORGE PLUMPTRE
Author, journalist and lecturer, George is widely recognised as an international authority on gardens and gardening.
Currently the Chief Executive of our 2015 charity beneficiary, the National Gardens Scheme, George has also lectured on a wide range of garden subjects in Britain, the USA, and South Africa, contributed articles to various publications and has published a number of books on gardening as well.
SARAH RAVEN
Award winning teacher, writer and presenter, Sarah is a passionate gardener and has been running cooking, flower arranging, growing and gardening courses at Perch Hill, her farm in East Sussex since 1999.
Sarah has written for many renowned gardening titles and her cookery books have won numerous awards. She has also appeared on BBC Gardeners’ World and, in January 2014, presented an episode in the Great British Garden Revival series.
CHARLOTTE SAGER-WILDE
Charlotte is the co-founder of two of London’s most talked about wine bars, Sager + Wilde and Mission, as well as wine consultancy 125.
Working to create different experiences around wine has seen her revolutionise the London wine scene, and she also regularly contributes to wine, lifestyle & travel publications.
MARK RIDSDILL SMITH
After applying for an allotment space in London and becoming frustrated with the waiting times, Mark decided to start growing food on his balcony instead.
This led him to start Vertical Veg and The Vertical Veg Club, through which he shares his learnings to inspire others to do the same and to promote urban food growing as a catalyst for change.
ST. JOHN STEPHEN
Garden designer and broadcaster, St. John has a regular gardening expert slot on The Robert Elms Show for BBC London.
As well as a being a gardening enthusiast, St. John writes poetry and in his spare time performs his work as The Hanging Gardener of Babylon.
CLEVE WEST
Returning to GROW London this June is award-winning garden designer and presenter Cleve West. Cleve has been designing show stopping gardens since 1990, and last year he opened GROW as part of gardening trio Three Men Went to Mow.
He likes to mix the classic with the contemporary in his designs and enjoys improving landscapes where wildlife can flourish.
STEPHEN WOODHAMS
An RHS Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medalist, Stephan Woodhams was one of the youngest gardeners ever to win a Gold Medal when he first won in 1994 for Mr. Maidment’s Garden.
A pioneer of the inside/outside concept, his designs feature strong architectural identities and lush planting combinations which incorporate an eclectic mix of texture and colour.
HELEN YEMM
Having always had an interest in gardening - her parents were both academic botanists and avid gardeners themselves - Helen realised her own passion when she acquired her first garden in west London.
Helen is now a well-recognised authority within the gardening world, sharing her extensive knowledge through her lectures, television presenting, and in her regular column for The Telegraph, ‘Thorny Problems’.