Have you met our gardening expert, Hannah? She is our go-to gal for all things plants - thanks to her RHS qualification and enthusiasm for gardening! This July, Hannah will be showcasing her debut garden design at RHS Tatton Flower Show, which you will find next to our stall in the plant village. 

To help you get to know her a bit better, we decided to ask Hannah a few questions about her inspiration for all things gardening. 

Has gardening always been a hobby of yours?

I’d say that gardening was a definitive part of my childhood as we had a little vegetable patch at the bottom of my parent’s garden which we loved. As I got older, throughout high school and college I helped less and less but then when I started working at J. Parker's whilst at university, I started to get back into it again, helping my parents with their garden and now I love it!

What is it that you enjoy most about gardening?

I think that it’s probably one of the only times when I completely switch off and just focus on what I’m doing when I’m gardening. You also can’t beat it when all your plants and vegetables come into flower and fruit, it’s the best feeling seeing all your hard work pay off.

How did you get into gardening?

I think that it was a mixture of things really. As I said, it was always a part of my life growing up but then I think working in the horticulture industry whilst doing my degree also got me into it. Whenever the new catalogues came out, I’d always flick through and see which my favourites were! Then I started helping my parents with their garden more and more and now I’m just obsessed with plants!


Image: Tatton Flower Show 2022 Trade Stall Display

How does garden designing differ from your day-to-day work at Mottram Garden Centre?

I suppose everything differs really. At Mottram, I assist with the management of the garden centre and ordering seasonally to suit a multitude of tastes and requirements for our customers. The Tatton trade stall border has allowed me to focus on one theme and to put a design together that will hopefully inspire people to try different plants/schemes in their own gardens.

What’s been your biggest challenge designing the trade stall border?

I would say that it’s probably narrowing down the choice of plants. There are so many plants that I love and would want to use but it’s not possible to cram them all in!

When designing, what was your process?

The first thing was deciding what our theme would be and what we wanted the stall border to represent. So, myself and the team decided that we wanted our colour theme to relate back to our show garden, to include drought-tolerant and pollinator-friendly plants and also plants that we supply as part of the mail order. I also wanted the border to be as accessible as possible, so we haven’t chosen any plants that are extremely difficult to grow or get hold of.

Then for the design itself, I decided to keep it as simple as possible with a cottage-style border full of colour. We want people to go home feeling like this is something that they could try in their own gardens and not feel intimidated by it, it doesn’t have to be fancy!

What can people at home look forward to most about the trade stall border at RHS Tatton?

There will be lots of plants that are in the border that are available to buy along with bulbs and other plants we sell at J. Parker's. You can sign up for our mailing list, meet the team, and there should be some lovely discounts as well!


Will we see you at RHS Flower Show Tatton Park? You can read about our exhibition garden here. 

Excited for RHS Tatton 2023? Here's a look back at last year's stall