Chris Collins is a gardening legend – winning a legion of fans from his early days working in amenity horticulture to his big break on Blue Peter, presenting on the QVC shopping channel and being the ambassador to the national charity Garden Organic. In this edition of Dig It Peter Brown and Chris Day chat to Chris - the globetrotting author; TV broadcaster; lecturer and horticultural consultant.

Plants mentioned: Ulmus angustifolia (Cornish elm), David Austin Roses, Borage, Poppies, tomatoes, aubergines, spinach, bedding plants, chillis, peppers, micro-greens in a salad bar and bulbs - Alliums, Crocus, Snowdrops, and Tulips. Houseplants: Cycads, Crotons, Ficus benjamina, Pelargoniums, and terrarium gardening.

Products and people: David Austin Roses, Whichford Pottery, Trowels, Honda Mower, Percy Thrower, hanging baskets, Obelisks, Maxi crop Seaweed Extract, Q4 pellets, spouts with water bottles. Lawrence Hills, founder of Garden Organics. Horticulture Week magazine, The Plantsman (BBC 2 programme), and QVC Shopping Channel.

Places mentioned: Graduate of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Apprentice gardeners at Brighton Parks Department, Limbe Botanic Garden in Cameroon, South arboretum at the Royal Botanic gardens in Kew, Head gardener at Westminster Abbey Gardens, college garden / medicinal garden. BBC Media City, Salford, home of the Blue Peter Garden, and Balcony gardens at Chelsea Flower Show.

Desert island luxuries: Felco 8 secateurs and Betula (birch tree), one of the most relaxed ‘unstressed’ trees to grow.

Chris’s gardening book, Grow Your Own For Kids

Chris Collins’s website Facebook and Instagram

Our thanks to Chiltern Music Therapy for supplying the music.

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