This talk and all our lectures are FREE for Friends of the Botanical Gardens to attend. Members of the public are also welcome to join us on payment of £5 at the door on the day. Live talks are held in the Education Centre in the grounds of the Botanical Gardens - easily accessed via the Thompson Road Entrance.
Malcolm Dickson of Hooksgreen Herbs in Staffordshire will cover the propagation and growing conditions of popular culinary, medicinal and scented herbs, as well as providing a window into the world of showing herbs, including some behind the scenes photographs and stories of life on the RHS show circuit.
After 20 years in industry, in 1994 Malcolm decided to start a small horticultural nursery on the 4 acres at the family Hooksgreen Farm, growing and selling a wide variety of plants, through the local wholesale market in Cheshire and three local markets, as well as a number of smaller Garden Centres and Farm shops.
After training in Horticulture at Pershore College and three years working on a nursery in Stellenbosch, South Africa, Malcolm’s son Thomas returned to the UK and with his father, decided to specialise in Herbs. They recognised that they were a popular product, being promoted in the media on the many cooking programmes and the ‘grow your own’ gardening programmes, while herbal remedies were also becoming more popular. In 2004 they changed the name of the company to Hooksgreen Herbs Ltd and started the transition to specialist Herb growers.
In 2010 Thomas created some large island displays and was rewarded with an RHS Gold medal at ‘BBC Gardeners World Live’ at the NEC Birmingham and in the ‘Growing Tastes Marquee’ at Hampton Court Flower Show. In 2011 Hooksgreen Herbs attended Chelsea Flower Show and in 2014 were awarded an RHS Chelsea Gold medal for “Peter Rabbit’s Herb Garden” in conjunction with The World of Beatrix Potter from Windermere, Cumbria.
Malcolm has been a Trustee of the Herb Society for more than 10 years and continues to run Hooksgreen Herbs as a nursery and with a flourishing mail order business.
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