TOGETHER WE ARE STRONGER

I HAVE WORKED quite a lot with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) over the last couple of decades. In the beginning, I complained a lot (about Chelsea, about judging, about perceived stuffiness and so on). I was a nuisance until I realised that the RHS is an extraordinary charity that works in so many varied areas, and that helping it was going to be more satisfying than sniping.

Last year, I was made an RHS ambassador for garden design (there are others with different responsibilities including Kate Bradbury, who talks about wildlife; Mark Gregory for landscaping; and pre-registered Society of Garden Designers member Manoj Malde for inclusivity). This was terribly nice and made me itch for some knee breeches and a Ferrero Rocher, but there needed to be more purpose behind the idea – more than just a title. The purpose of RHS ambassadors is to spread the gardening message and to help foster relationships with other organisations. It is not a terribly formal position, but I want to make it a good use of my time.

Unsurprisingly, the RHS is big on garden design. All five of its own permanent gardens feature work from some of the greats in the profession: Tom Stuart-Smith FSGD and design studio Harris Bugg at RHS Bridgewater, Xa Tollemache MSGD at RHS Hyde Hall, Jo Thompson MSGD at RHS Rosemoor, and Ann-Marie Powell FSGD at RHS Wisley.

The charity’s Shows department employs some of the most inspiring people I have ever met – they all go the extra mile to help – and the RHS includes designers at every stage of their careers, from the big cheeses at RHS Chelsea Flower Show to young designers just starting out at RHS Flower Show Tatton Park and RHS Malvern Spring Festival. All we designers need to do to enter is to convince the selection panel our idea is worthy of exhibition, and we are in – provided, of course, that we have sorted the small problem of securing sponsorship.

The RHS recruits its show judges from all parts of the industry, and it treasures the designers, landscapers and plant specialists who give freely of their time and expertise to fulfil these roles. Many of them are members of the SGD, so it is important that garden designers remember that their gardens are judged not by the RHS, but by a feistily independent panel of their peers.

So, what will this newly minted ambassador be adding to the pot? My first thought (obviously) was to pester the SGD. There are a number of different organisations and charities in horticulture, and it seems odd that sometimes we are all doing the same thing separately when it would make much more sense to do it together.

This is particularly important when it comes to the big issues of today. Climate change is not an RHS or an SGD problem, it is a world problem. Sustainability is another biggie: both the RHS and the SGD have excellent policies and where the two organisations dovetail, so should their positions on such important issues. The lack of diversity in horticulture cannot be underplayed and we should be encouraging people of every gender and from every culture to get involved. Education is another huge subject: both that of our children at school and the education of the next generation of designers, gardeners, horticulturists, landscapers and nursery people. We need to recruit and nurture our successors.

All of us, from professional designers to the most amateur of new gardeners and children still in school, have the same aim: to make the world a better place. The RHS does it through shows, publications, communities, education, science and so on. SGD members do it by designing drop-dead-gorgeous gardens for public spaces and private clients. We all do it by encouraging everyone to understand that gardens can make a difference.

If any of you have any interesting ideas, then please shout and we will do what we can. I am easy to find and being ambassadorial has to be better for me than sitting at my desk eating biscuits…