Gardening ‘royalty’ Pippa Greenwood to give demonstrations at Haskins Garden Centres

February and March sees gardening ‘royalty’ Pippa Greenwood visit Haskins Garden Centres in Ferndown, Dorset and West End, Hampshire to talk to customers on her growing experiences as well as giving an exclusive gardening demonstration.

The events are the first in an instalment of Haskins’ ‘expert talks’ which take place in Ferndown on Tuesday February 28 and in West End on Thursday March 2, from 11:30am to 12:30pm.

Hampshire resident Pippa started her career as a trained botanist and received an honorary Doctorate of Science by The University of Durham. She worked The Royal Horticultural Society’s Garden at Wisley in Surrey, where she ran the Plant Pathology Department - answering several thousand queries from gardeners every year.

She then leapt to fame working alongside Alan Titchmarsh on gardening programmes on the radio, and has appeared as a guest speaker and presenter on a number of TV programmes including Tomorrow’s World, You and Yours, Woman’s Hour, This Morning, GMTV, Breakaway, Grass Roots and Call my Bluff.

Alasdair Urquhart, plant advisor at Haskins Garden Centre, said: “We are delighted to have gardening royalty Pippa Greenwood visit two of our centres. Her career is one which I have personally followed with interest and it’s great that she is going to share her expertise with us and our customers.”

Customers are requested to make a £1 donation which will go directly to Dorset Mind and Countess Mountbatten Hospice. Pippa will be giving her advice on growing and will be demonstrating some propagation from Haxnicks garden products, the sponsor of the two events.

Tickets are available in the centres, or customers can arrive on the day, there will also be free entry into a prize draw to win gardening products.

Haskins Garden Centres is based in Ferndown in Dorset, West End in Southampton and Roundstone and Snowhill in West Sussex.