Sir, Mr Dunlop berates the Royal Horticultural Society for no longer being the exclusive preserve of serious horticulturalists (letter, July 2). Our role as a charity is to support gardeners of all levels and abilities, whether they are expert horticulturists or children who are planting seeds for the first time. We are unashamed about sharing the wealth of knowledge within the RHS with a mass market.

In the UK 18 million people garden their own plots and six million of them count themselves keen amateurs. The RHS believes that gardening improves the quality of life and helps to create healthy, sustainable communities, and that everyone should have access to great garden experiences.

We enable this through the four RHS gardens in Surrey, Devon, Essex and Yorkshire, more than 100 RHS-recommended gardens across the UK, 16 flower shows, books and magazines, libraries, advisory service and our website, which attracts 572,000 visitors a month. We provide learning opportunities and training for gardeners at all levels, from informal events and demonstrations to internationally recognised qualifications. Through our Britain in Bloom and Neighbourhood awards we help more than 1,000 communities to clean up and “green up” where they live. One of our most significant recent initiatives is the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, which is already active in more than 4,500 schools.

The cornerstone for all this activity is the horticultural expertise at the heart of the charity. A key part of our role is to interpret and disseminate information based on proven horticultural science and practice. Far from withdrawing from “serious horticulture”, we are investing to ensure that our scientific programmes are relevant to the challenges facing gardeners. We are currently recruiting for a senior post, which will support our specialist plant groups and committees so that we can improve how we share their expertise with RHS members and the wider public.

Of course, there is a financial imperative for the RHS. For every pound we receive in subscriptions from our 360,000 members, we have to raise twice as much again to fund continuing operations. If we are to secure a healthy future for horticulture, we need to do more than uphold the highest standards of horticulture and plantsmanship, we also need to develop relevant to the needs of gardeners today and tomorrow. We hope that professionals and novices alike will welcome our efforts to be more entertaining, enterprising and inclusive.

Inga Grimsey
Director-General, Royal Horticultural Society

Explore Letters

• Feedback