Samantha Hopes

Samantha Hopes – Plants with a story

Samantha initially trained and worked as a Geologist but soon found herself distracted by the plants growing on and around the rocks, more than the rocks themselves. Following this growing interest, she became a student at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and Pershore College and then moved to RHS Garden Wisley, specialising in Rock and Alpine plants. …

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Jim Buttress

Jim Buttress: 65 years in horticulture

Jim is involved with judging many horticultural shows including RHS Chelsea and Hampton Court. Trained at Wisley. He commenced his horticultural career in a local nursery, then at Croydon Parks before moving to the Greater London Council and on to The Royal Parks where he ended his career as Superintendent of Greenwich Park. A popular …

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Cyril Routley

Cyril Routley: A History of Sundials

Cyril has had an interest in time measurement for many years and has a collection of clocks which he maintains himself. He has also photographed many sundials and prepared a talk about them for the horological society. This has been adapted to talk about sundials as a garden feature which was the vogue in earlier …

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Yvonne Bell: A Garland of Edwardian Gardens

Yvonne has an interest is the Edwardian Period (1900 – 1914-18 War) and was commissioned by Shire Publications to write a book on ‘The Edwardian Home’ which was to include a chapter on the Garden. This led to more research on Edwardian Gardens and she now gives a series of talks about them. Yvonne’s Mother …

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