Download PDFSpring 2007 Programme

Each lecture and workshop day at the Llanover Garden School starts at 10am with coffee or tea, ahead of the morning talk at 10.30am. A seated two course lunch will be served with wine or elderflower, before the afternoon lecture. The day will end with homemade teas and another opportunity to walk around the garden or to talk with the lecturers.

Wednesday 7th March
Anthony Noel - Stylish Pots      SOLD OUT
Anthony, author and garden designer originally trained at the V&A in decorative arts before becoming an actor. However for over 15 years he has been designing gardens with his style of 'classical with a theatrical dash'. March is the time to plan your pots for the summer, so expect to hear about and see some glamorous and original ideas.

Lia Leendertz - The Half Hour Vegetable Garden     SOLD OUT
Before you get disheartened by the thought of all the time that this years vegetable patch will involve, come and listen to Lia, author and regular garden writer for the Guardian, give advice about managing the garden and enjoying fresh vegetables throughout the year on just half an hours work a day with weekends off!

Wednesday 14th March
Charles Williams - Bursting out of Winter with Camellias and Magnolias
Charles owns and runs the Burncoose Nursery and Garden in Cornwall. Weather permitting he will bring fresh flowers and slides to show us the wealth of Camellias and Magnolias available to enhance gardens in winter and spring. Numerous Magnolias and Camellias grow here at Llanover and many of them will hopefully be in full bloom, so there may be an opportunity to view them in the Garden with Charles after the lecture.

Sally Gregson – Shady Ladies & Damp Damsels
Sally has run her Mill Cottage Plants nursery for over 15 years, specialising in perennials, ferns and grasses. She writes regular articles for the Country Gardener, giving general gardening advice and profiling different plants each month. Today Sally will give ideas of plants to use in those difficult spots from dry shade under trees to heavy damp areas.

Wednesday 21st March
Derry Watkins - Cut flowers to Sow Now!
After earlier careers writing film scripts and as a photographer in America, Derry started Special Plants Nursery in 1996 when she and her husband brought a derelict barn to convert into a house, and gradually started converting the fields into a garden and nursery. Prior to that in 1993 she won a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to spend three months in South Africa looking for new plants to introduce into horticulture in England. In 1995 she went back, seed collecting in the Drakensberg. Trips to India, Nepal, Chile and Ethiopia have resulted in many new plants and seeds being brought back.

In 1999 Derry won a silver medal for her black and white exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show. She teaches at the English Gardening School, but today will be advising us on seeds to plant now, so that we can enjoy a garden full of flowers in Summer 2007.

Paul Williams - Houseplants: Indoor plants anyone can grow
Paul was Head Gardener at Bourton House, prior to becoming a successful designer, author, consultant, contributor to Hortus and The English Garden. He will give practical and trouble shooting advice, demonstrating how to grow and keep houseplants at their best.

Wednesday 28th March
Ursula Buchan -Structure in The English Garden
Ursula recently published 'The English Garden' which has received critical acclaim as she 'writes with wisdom and even-handedness, treating design and horticulture as equally important'. Some of Andrew Lawsons wonderful photographs which Ursula will use to illustrate her talk were featured in the December issue of 'The Garden' which she has become a regular contributor too, in addition to writing for the Weekend Telegraph in her very knowledgeable and practical style.

Christine Skelmersdale -Creative Gardening with Bulbs
Bulbs are an important feature of any planting scheme throughout the year. Christine an acknowledged expert on bulbs and winner of RHS gold medals with Broadleigh Gardens, will use slides to illustrate their use with an emphasis on colour, shape and texture in different situations and planting partnerships.