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The Cattle Market, Melton Mowbray 5th April 2008 Open 10.00am – 5pm |
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Saturday 5th April
Celebrity Gardener, Rachel de Thame (Sat only) will be on site with Martin Fish and The Garden Roadshow Team (Sat & Sun) Rachel de Thame Ex-model Rachel de Thame is one of the Gardeners' World team and has also filmed her own series, Small Town Gardens. Rachel's path to our screens has been varied and interesting. She studied ballet to a professional standard, but was forced to give up her dream of a dancing career with the Royal Ballet School because of a prolonged bout of glandular fever. Rachel went on to work for an international firm of art dealers in London, but was soon spotted by a modeling agency and moved into a long and successful career as a model. This included appearances in TV commercials and acting roles in the mini series Merlin and British film Bodywork. |
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A career in modeling was not Rachel's ideal long-term choice, so she enrolled at the English Gardening School, where she earned a certificate in practical horticulture and plants and plantsmanship. When asked how she manages to keep her fingernails so clean and long. Rachel replied: "I get a lot of flak from people who say you can't be a real gardener and try and grow your nails. But I wear gloves when I'm doing serious gardening to protect my hands from toxoplasmosis, which is an organism born in the soil that comes primarily from cats faeces and it can be very dangerous for pregnant women. Because I wear gloves, my nails don't get damaged." As to her favourite plant, her biggest gardening inspiration and her favourite garden, she says: "The rose is my favourite. An obvious choice, but it has to be the rose. It's just so beautiful, its appearance, its scent, performing on and off from summer to Christmas. I know they're out of favour with garden designers, but I love them, the old and new varieties. "My favourite garden has to be the Chelsea Physic Garden. It's close to me and where I studied. An ancient garden, it was founded in 1673 and is still in the same site by the River Thames. It is a place to learn as well as sit and be. Whenever I go I find something new and get inspired." Rachel is married with four children and lives in London. Garden Road Show Team
He now broadcasts gardening programmes for BBC Radio Nottingham and BBC East Midlands Today. Martin has also presented gardening programmes for Carlton, Yorkshire, and Anglia TV and was a panellist on Classic F.M.'s Gardening Forum. He writes for Garden News, Garden Answers, The Garden (Journal of the RHS) and has written three gardening books. He lives in Nottinghamshire where he grows a wide range of plants including fruit and vegetables on his six-acre plot. She writes for Garden Answers and since 1995 has been a regular panellist on BBC Radio York's gardening programme and has co-presented a gardening series for Central Television. She loves sharing her enthusiasm on the Road Show and gives talks and demonstrations to gardening and flower clubs across the country. Sarah also acts as tour guide, escorting groups around gardens in Britain and Europe. During the winter months, she lectures horticulture part-time at Askham Bryan College, York. Most importantly, Sarah is a 'hands-on' gardener and has transformed a variety of plots for others whilst still finding some time for her own new garden near Thirsk.
He is now the Associate Editor for Garden Answers and has worked for Garden News, The Garden, (Journal of the RHS) and Practical Gardening. You can also hear Geoff on BBC Radio Cambridge answering listeners’ gardening questions. As a freelance writer Geoff has written several books on subjects such as irises, bulbs and gardening through the seasons. He gives gardening talks on several subjects, hosts events at garden centres and is a regular on the Gardening Road Show. Geoff lives and gardens in Cambridgeshire and has a love of greenhouse gardening, rare and unusual plants. |
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Sarah Hopps was brought up in North Yorkshire and has always had a passion for plants and gardening. For fifteen years she ran her own small nursery specialising in cottage-garden and herbaceous plants.
Geoff Stebbings has been interested in gardening since childhood and trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He has worked in garden centres and was Head Gardener at Myddleton House in Middlesex where he restored an Edwardian garden before venturing into garden writing.