When I speak with horticulturalist, author and TV presenter Frances Tophill, ahead of her talk at this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival, it’s the middle of February. Remember the endless rain? At the time it felt like we’d need an ark just to nip to the shops, but Frances tells me she has been busy prepping a garden for RHS Chelsea. “How?” I want to know, “my garden is currently a bog”.
She agrees that it’s tricky and I subsequently realise that she must have been referring to The RHS and The King’s Foundation Curious Garden. It is her first garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and one she has been working on alongside HRH King Charles III and The King’s Foundation Ambassadors Sir David Beckham and Alan Titchmarsh CBE. However, before Chelsea comes RHS Malvern (7-10 May), and I want to know what she has planned for that.
“I love Malvern – I shouldn't say this, but it’s probably my favourite flower show. I’ll be there for one day doing talks and I always try to get my mum to come – I feel like my mum would love it. There’s lots to buy and it’s that first spring festival. It’s that day when the bluebells and the cow parsley are out and I always go for a walk up on the Malvern hills.
It’s a really lovely show with lots of show gardens that are really, really good. Lots of new innovative ideas and loads of really good shopping – and there’s plenty of space to see everything. I really like it”.
You’ve mentioned innovation in the show gardens – what could you see this year that would really excite you?
That's a good question. I feel like we've come to a pinnacle of my style of gardening (which is along the lines of the rewilding end of the spectrum). So, where does it go now?
We’ve had Chelsea having gardens [designed with] weeds, and it seems like we've pushed everything almost as far as we can. So, what is going to be the next thing? I would like to think that it's going to be weed-friendly spaces that are also really beautiful, elevated gardens.
I'm really interested to see if people go down that route and create spaces that might almost look tropical, with ornamental flowers. Not the same aesthetic we've seen in the last few years with lots of gravel and native plants – I do really like that – but I think that a walled garden-looking space could come back with a reinvention which is still about ecology and sustainability. So, rather than a garden that recreates natural spaces, [something with] really bright colours and non-native planting, but still all really pollinator friendly.
How did you come to be a TV presenter?
I was in Edinburgh, at the Edinburgh Botanical Garden, and the company that make made Love Your Garden was looking for new presenters. Me and some friends thought it would be fun to apply and that's how it happened.
It was when it was when Monty Don was doing Around the World in 80 Gardens and we all thought that looked like a really good gig, so we rocked up in London and found ourselves doing a screen test, which was really scary. I was so nervous, I couldn't really string a sentence together when I started doing it and I always just thought that they wouldn't want me again. Each year I thought it would be the last and it's now 13 years later, and I'm still going, ‘wow’.
You’ve got so many followers on social media, are we in the age of the rock star gardener?
A well-known TV gardener isn’t really the coolest, is it? It's very nice but I don't feel like there are any rock star gardeners – maybe other people would disagree. I feel like you wave goodbye to your cool as soon as you become a gardener and I have accepted my uncool status with a good grace.
How does the professional gardening year work? What do you do during the winter months?
It's probably the busiest time of the year for gardeners, but it depends what kind of gardening you do. I've worked in food production and there is a lull in the coldest months of the year, where you'll be sharpening tools, sorting out seed packets and things like that, but generally speaking, the winter is the best time for getting loads of projects done.
You'll do all of your budgeting and ordering compost, getting all the wood chip delivered, and then all the tree felling happens in the winter, plus orchard pruning, redoing pathways – all those sorts of things – greenhouses, clearing old bedding, edging all of the beds so that they're ready for the next season. It's a really busy time.
And in my work as a gardener, I'm in my role. Spring and summer are when I'm travelling the country, filming or going to shows, but the winter is when I actually am a gardener, a designer.
Have you got any advice on how to buy the best plants for our gardens?
Garden centres are great and they're really accessible: you can get a coffee, mooch around, get some nice clothes and also some plants but I'm big advocate for small nurseries. When you go to a small nursery, usually the plants that you're buying have been grown by the person who runs that nursery. They can tell you exactly how to grow them, where they'll grow, how to look after them, what they like best – that person is the expert in growing that plant, because they've grown it. And you usually get plants that are a better price as they haven't got the huge overheads. There’s also the sustainability [factor] because that person has grown it means they haven't shipped it in from Holland, which is where a lot of our plants come from.
One day I would love to run a little nursery. Those people are so knowledgeable. When you go to somewhere like Malvern, the best part is all specialist nurseries that will be there. Small businesses that are really just keen about their plants. People who might be obsessed with succulents, and all they sell is succulents – or loads of bulbs, they know everything about bulbs. There's a really cool nursery that's always at the garden shows that grows exotic plants: I always buy from them. You can chat to these experts who are so unassuming; they just turn up and sell plants and try to get people to grow the plants they love. I think that's great.
RHS Malvern takes place between 7-10 May. This year’s theme is Roots of the Future and in addition to Frances Tophill the lineup of special guests includes Monty Don, Dame Mary Berry, Adam Frost and Sue Kent. For more information and to book tickets visit rhsmalvern.co.uk.
