Pioneering Women Gardeners, Daffodils and Climate Lessons

Gardening with the RHS

Royal Horticultural Society

Home & Garden, Leisure, Hobbies

4.4 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week we’re exploring the lives of the pioneering women gardeners of the 20th century who paved the way for women in horticulture today… through music. Composer Omri Kochavi will be sharing how he was inspired by the book ‘An Almost Impossible Thing’ by Fiona Davison to create what he calls a 'horti-musical'. Now's the perfect time to think ahead to spring, and daffodil devotee Camilla Bassett-Smith will be joining us to share some of her favourite cultivars, and top tips on getting the most out of your bulbs. And finally we’re taking stock after a hot, dry summer. We visit Alex Paines at RHS Garden Rosemoor in Devon to explore how the gardeners there are adapting what, where, and how they plant. Host: Guy Barter Contributors: Omri Kochavi, Camilla Bassett-Smith, Alex Paines Links: An Almost Impossible Thing: The radical lives of Britain's pioneering women gardeners Omri Kochavi’s website Ladies in Bloomers RHS Daffodils Daffodil Diaries project RHS Garden Rosemoor

Transcript

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0:00.0	Save 30% on RHS membership today.
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0:13.0	Delight in exclusive member only days and reduce rate tickets to RHS flower shows.
0:19.0	Plus expert gardening advice, monthly editions of the garden magazine
0:22.6	and so much more
0:23.9	join today from just £56.org
0:27.6	UK
0:28.8	hurry offer ends soon
0:31.0	terms and conditions apply
0:32.5	in the same
0:34.5	in the same way that gardening and gardens are a refuge for people in modern life, I think that music can also be that.
0:48.3	So I think for me this connection also exists on the more functional philosophical level of we need to have stuff that's our way
0:56.2	from our screens and bring us together.
0:58.4	And I think both gardening and music do it separately, and I think combine it can be even
1:03.8	more.
1:08.7	While searching for the perfect gift for a garden-loving friend, composer Omri Kohave,
1:13.3	stumbled across a book that would spark his next musical creation.
1:17.4	The book was an almost impossible thing by Fiona Davison,
1:21.0	a vivid exploration of the extraordinary and often overlooked lives of Britain's pioneering women gardeners.
1:32.3	Within its pages, Omri discovered stories of resilience and innovation, women who broke through barriers, challenged convention,
1:35.3	and reshaped the future of horticulture.
1:38.3	Like so many women of the 20th century,
	...

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