Speakers 2025-2026
'Cherry' Ingram and his Rich Legacy
Tuesday 21st October, 2025
7.30pm
Naoko Abe - Japanese Journalist and Author
Naoko is a journalist and author who now lives near London with her English family.
Naoko will be talking about the eccentric Edwardian, Collingwood ('Cherry' Ingram, the man who introduced cherry trees to England.
As a result of his propagation many of the cultivars that had been lost in Japan could be re-introduced.
We will also hear about the symbolism of the cherry flowers in Japan, including the wartime use for ideology by the army.
Green Kingdom, a Billion Years in the Cottage Garden
Wednesday 12th November, 2025
7.30pm
Ben Dark - Gardener, Author and Podcaster
Ben is an award winning writer, gardener and historian. He is the author of The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 191/2 Front Gardens.
He currently lives in Denmark, but still loves all the strangeness and romance of the English garden, as his books demonstrate.
His talk will take a picture-perfect west country garden and explore the asteroids, tectonic smashes and parasites behind it all.
The evening will be a mixture of horticulture, history and evolutionary biology, all lightly told with beautiful slides and excellent jokes.
In Search of Trees
Thursday 4th December, 2025
7.30pm
Tom Christian - Horticulturist and Dendrologist
Tom is a botanical horticulturist and dendrologist with a broad experience of trees and collections throughout the UK, Ireland and beyond.
He graduated at the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh.
Since 2018 he has been working as a consulting Dendrologist and Deputy Editor of the International Dendrology Society's flagship project - 'Trees and Shrubs On line'.
Tom's talk will sample the breadth of his current work as well as personal highlights from his travels to date.
Though centred round trees, we are assured that plenty of other plant forms will be featured during the evening.
Orchids Nature's Way
Thursday 15th January, 2026
7.30pm
Simon Pugh-Jones - Founder of the Writhlington School Orchid Project
Simon set up and ran the Writhlington School orchid project for 34 years, winning 15 RHS Gold medals and supporting the development of conservation education across the tropical world.
He and his wife, Annie, now run a nursery, Isle of Portland Orchids, as well as spending time this year working in Sarawak.
Simon will reflect on nearly 50 years of orchid growing and the lessons he has learnt from exploring the world'd tropical forests.
Unusual Plants for the Winter Garden
Monday 16th February, 2026
7.30pm
Jack Aldridge - Team Leader Rock Garden and Alpine Collections at RHS Wisley
Jack is a horticulturist and writer with a wide range of interests. Graduating with a Diploma from Wisley in 2022 he received the RHS Roy Lancaster Award in 2024. He lives and breathesplants and is the youngest ever member of the Society's Woody Plants Committee.
This promises to be a talk that will inspire us all to look at our gardens afresh, an opportunity to hear from a rising star in British horticluture who has already made a significant conribution to plant conservation.
Planting from the Heart
Thursday 19th March, 2026
7.30pm
Roy Diblik - Founder of Northwind Farm, Wisconsin
Roy has spent more than 40 years studying, growing and enjoying plants. He is now an internationally recognised perennial expert.
Co-owner of Northwind farm, Roy will talk to us about his life and his passion for plants and people.
Gardening in Sand for the Plant Library
Thursday 16th April, 2026
7.30pm
Millie Souter - Head Gardener at the Plant Library
Millie originally studied Fine Art, painting and drawing follwed by Garden Design at the Inchbold School.
She has gardened professionally for most of her life, joining Tom Stuart-Smith Ltd in 2021
Now Head Gardener at The Plant Library, Millie will be telling us about her work studying and developing the sand beds, as she is both extending and deepening them within the Serge Hill Project.
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The Tresco Story
Wednesday 20th May, 2026
7.30pm
Mike Nelhams - Curator Tresco's Abbey Gardens
RHS judge on the Tender Plants Committee and Fellow of the Institute of Horticulture, Mike has been Garden Curator/Director at Tresco Abbey Garden on the Isles of Scilly for over 40 years.
He has a particular interest in plants from the Mediterranean and associated coastal regions around the world.
Mike will talk on the horticultural extravaganza that has evolved through the six generations of the Dorrien-Smith family and how this unique garden has flourished on an island 30 miles out into the Atlantic ocean.