Welcome back to another episode of the Mic the Gardener - Gardening Podcast.

In this week's episode I chat to curator of RHS Wisley, Matt Pottage. And in this conifers special, Matt tells us all about the best conifers we can grow in our gardens.

Conifers have had a bad press in recent decades, following the controversy over leylandii hedges. Yes, the ones which some people have allowed to tower over properties, depriving them of light and causing many neighbourly disputes. Further, very popular in the 1970s were dwarf conifers, which eventually grew into huge, unsightly blobs in our gardens.  

But,conifers are due a revival. There are many, many beautiful evergreen and deciduous conifers out there which make perfect garden worthy plants.  Planted alongside other shrubs and perennials, they make a great addition to the garden. There are also conifers for statement pieces and, in light of the recent issues around box blight and box caterpillar, some conifers can make great hedging alternatives.

Matt talks us through conifers for different soil locations, discusses pests and diseases (of which there aren't many!) and tells us how we can propagate conifers for our own garden.  He also mentions by variety some specifically great examples that we can use, including some particular favourites of his own.

If you love conifers, or are looking to re-introduce conifers into your garden, grab a pen and paper, a cuppa and enjoy this information packed episode.

Some of the conifers we talk about today, I photographed during my visit to RHS Wisley, and can be seen by clicking the link here. 

As always, thank you so much for listening to the Mic the Gardener - Gardening Podcast and please do FOLLOW/SUBSCRIBE to ensure you don’t miss new episodes.  And, if you listen through Apple Podcasts, please do leave a review.

You can follow me for more gardening action through my Instagram account @mike_thegardener. 

Thanks for listening and I'll see  you next week. 

Mike