Gardening Talks Saturday 3rd September

11am - Alan Down "Some Less Common Climbing Plants"

Alan Down will be well known to many in the Bristol area as the co presenter, with his wife Felicity, and Sue King of the very successful HTV Garden Calendar series. The six series were based at Alan and Felicity's private garden at the back of their retail plant nursery in the village of Cleeve. Every week Alan and Felicity would lead viewers, in great detail, through the gardening activities appropriate to the time of year. Almost 150 programmes of 30 minutes were produced and Garden Calendar became compulsive viewing for HTV, Anglia Meridian and Discovery channel viewers.

Prior to this Alan had considerable experience with live radio gardening 'phone ins' and has over 40 years experience of gardening and horticulture to draw on. He has been the Western Daily Press Gardening Correspondent since 2005. When not running the busy retail nursery at Cleeve, he will be found, either in his own garden or in the production nursery where many of his plants are produced. Having travelled extensively to study gardening and garden plants [Europe, Scandinavia, North America, Central and South Africa, Himalayas], Alan has an exceptional plant knowledge.

12.15pm - Sarah Raven "Picking, Conditioning & Flower Arranging"

This year we are pleased to welcome Sarah Raven, well known for her appearances on Gardener’s World and as a columnist for the Daily Telegraph Gardening Section and Sainsbury’s Magazine. She runs a garden and cookery school at her home, Perch Hill in Sussex and has written several gardening and cookery books. 

Sarah will be giving a 30 minute picking, conditioning and flower arranging demo with a Question and Answer session afterwards, as well as being available to sign her books.

3.15pm - Wendy Wright "Landscape and Garden Design"

Wendy Wright trained at The Inchbald School of Design and returned there as Lecturer and Project Tutor from 1985-1988. For many years her designs were exhibited at The Chelsea Flower Show, and in 1987 she was elected a Fellow of The Society of Landscape and Garden Designers. In 1989 she established a School of Garden Design entitled "The Garden School in the North" based in Co. Durham, and between 1989 and 1996 was a Visiting Lecturer at The English Gardening School at the Chelsea Physic Garden.

Wendy continues to design and consult all over Britain and abroad and is currently running Short Courses and Day Seminars on all aspects of Garden Design from the entrance to the spectacular landscaped gardens at Stourhead, Wiltshire.

“Capability Brown would have had a lot in common with Wendy Wright – ability, a sense of perspective denied the majority of people, a love of the landscape, and total professionalism" David Overend, Yorkshire Post