Download PDFSpring 2012 Programme

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

Wednesday 7th March Sold Out

Ursula Buchan – Scent in the Garden
Ursula is a regular writer for the RHS Garden magazine, author and practical gardener. Everyone knows that scent is one of the most potent triggers of memory and emotion. But we don’t always know how to add this dimension to the garden successfully. In this talk, Ursula considers how scent works, why it is so important, and how we can best use scented plants in the garden.

Rosy Hardy – Perennials for high season
Since 1988 when Rosy and Rob Hardy established Hardy’s Cottage Garden plants, their nursery has gained a superb reputation for unusual, beautiful and well-presented plants. They offer over 14,000 different varieties with something suited for every garden location. Today Rosy will talk about some of these plants and discuss ways to display them to best effect in your garden.

Thursday 15th March

Andy McIndoe – Shrubs throughout the year
Andrew is the energetic managing director of Hillier nurseries, whose responsibilities include designing their show garden at RHS Chelsea and writing their series of gardening guides. He will share his encyclopaedic knowledge of plants in an entertaining and lively manner, using fresh plant material and slides, whilst talking about shrubs for a range of garden sizes, environmental conditions and different seasons.

Anna Pavord – Growing food
Anna will describe how food crops can make a decorative as well as delicious addition to the garden, with guidance and planting plans designed to give traditional kitchen gardens a contemporary twist. Advice will be given on selecting the best varieties for flavour and looks, sowing, growing and harvesting the results.

Tuesday 20th March
This day is a rare treat: a chance to meet and hear two very highly regarded plantsmen who have dedicated their working lives to travelling the world in search of interesting plants and seeds. Their work propagating rarities has a dual purpose: it helps protect them from extinction and introduces excellent new additions to gardens.

Kevin Hughes – Magnolias
As March tends to be the start of the Magnolia flowering season, Kevin will speak about the different types of Magnolia and their characteristics. They are easy to grow, relatively pest free and once established need little attention. Advice will be given about planting Magnolias to give a long flowering season, and pruning them to suit your garden.

Bleddyn Wynn-Jones – Plant hunting in Vietnam
Established in 1991, Crug Farm Plants has a hard-earned reputation for finding and propagating rare plants. Over the course of 50 expeditions, Bleddyn and his wife Sue have collected seeds of more than 15,000 remarkable finds. They have made several excursions to the highlands of Vietnam, where climate and altitude ensure the kind of hardiness useful in British gardens. Bleddyn will show us some of the landscapes he has explored in Vietnam, and talk about the plants he has brought back and successfully propagated here.