It took around 6,000 years to create the species-rich grassland for which the UK is globally famous. Yet in less than a century, we have lost 97%. In celebration of our wild meadows, please join us for a talk & lunch with botanical specialists, to engage, enlighten and inspire in the creation and preservation of our wildland environments.
See below for information on our speakers.
Clare Foster
Clare joined House & Garden as garden editor in 2005: ‘I have the best job in the world: I visit gorgeous gardens, meet lovely people and then write about them.’ Her first book, 'The Flower Garden: how to grow flowers from seed', was published in 2019 by Laurence King. Read more by Clare at her website budtoseed.co.uk or follow her on Instagram at @clarefostergardens.
Rachel de Thame
Rachel is probably best known for her TV work, appearing on the BBC’s Gardeners’ World and co-hosting major RHS gardening shows, such as The Chelsea Flower Show, Malvern Flower Show, The Hampton Court Flower Show and BBC's Gardeners World Live. She also travels around the UK for Countrywise on ITV and has fronted two series of her own (Gardening with the Experts and Small Town Gardens). Rachel has also written two gardening books: Small Town Gardener and Rachel de Thame's Top 100 Star Plants. She co-authored Gardening with the Experts and contributed to Moving on Up. Rachel writes a regular gardening column for The Sunday Times.
Dr Trevor Dines
Dr Trevor Dines has co-authored the New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora, organising fieldwork and the collection of over nine million botanical records to map every native and naturalised plant in these islands. He is Plantlife’s Botanical Specialist, appearing on BBC R4 Today Programme, BBC Breakfast, BBC Springwatch, BBC Countryfile and The One Show as well as campaigning for better management of road verges and helping to deliver HRH The Prince of Wales’ vision for a meadow in every county through the Coronation Meadows project. Trevor has also presented Channel 4’s Wild Things and wrote a book A Guide to the Changing Plant Life of the British Isles to accompany the series.