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Gardening with the RHS

Learning From The Wild

Gardening with the RHS

Royal Horticultural Society

Hobbies, Leisure, Home & Garden

4.3691 Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we’re leafing through the pages of The Plant Review to explore a simple question: what can we learn from the wild? American plantsman Daniel J. Hinkley reflects on a lifetime of exploration that has taken him to some of the wildest places on Earth in search of plants. Yet in his article he turns his attention to a small, unassuming genus growing close to home in Washington State: Coptis. Next, David Pearce, curator of Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, transports us to the cloud-shrouded mountains of Madeira to meet a striking architectural plant found nowhere else in the wild, and one that he’s been successfully cultivating on the Dorset coast. And finally, Sacchi Parasrampuria and James Miller take us to Poon Hill in Nepal, reflecting on a recent plant observation trip and the lessons they brought back from the Himalayas. Hosts: James Armitage and Gareth Richards Contributors: Daniel J Hinkley, David Pearce, Saachi Parasrampuria, James Miller Links: The Plant Review Heronswood Gardens Abbotsbury subtropical gardens Musschia wollastonii

Transcript

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0:00.0

Looking for the perfect gift for the garden lover in your life?

0:04.0

This Mother's Day, save 25% on an RHS gift membership and swap the usual bunch of flowers

0:11.0

for a year of blooming moments at our 5 RHS gardens and 240 partner gardens, plus so much more.

0:19.0

Save 25% at RHS.org.

0:23.6

UK.

0:24.6

Hurry, offer end 16th of March, terms and conditions apply. Have you ever wondered where the plants in your garden actually come from?

0:41.3

Many garden favourites are native to Britain, including the charming pale yellow flowers of primroses

0:47.4

or primulov-orgaris, the towering bee-filled spires of digitalis purpuria, and of course

0:53.3

the iconic Quircus roba, the mighty English

0:55.9

oak. However, take a stroll down the garden path and you're likely to see plants originating

1:01.1

from all corners of planet Earth. That fluttering butterfly magnet, Budlia-Dividei originates in

1:07.3

China. The blousey blooms of hydrangea macrophila are endemic to Japan,

1:12.4

and the cheerful sunflower heads of Helianthus Anuas hail from North America.

1:17.3

Even some of almost traditional favourites have far-flung origins.

1:21.2

Modern roses are largely descended from Chinese species,

1:24.3

and dahlias can trace their roots back to Mexico and Central America.

1:28.3

But the question is, why is all this important?

1:31.3

To help me answer that question is James Armitage, editor of the Plant Review.

1:35.3

So James, what can we learn from the wild?

1:38.3

Well, it's that old adage, right plant, right place, which is a very good adage.

1:43.3

But how are we to judge what's the right plant for a place or what's the right place for a plant?

1:49.0

Come to that and to do that we really need to go back to the wild.

...

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