Gardeners’ Question Time Style Event

Thursday 29 May 2025

Denmans Garden

We welcomed over 60 people to the first of our Centenary events at the end of May and raised £936.50 in aid of Perennial, the only charity in the UK dedicated to helping people working in horticulture.

The knowledgeable panel was made up of Martin Duncan, Head Gardener at Arundel Castle and AGA President, Ben Pope, Head Gardener at a local private estate, and Jonathan Arnold, Head Gardener at Denmans.

The panel were kept in line by our question master, Jean Griffin, horticulturalist and presenter of Radio Sussex’s Sunday gardening programme, whose mix of wisdom and sense of humour made for a fun and enjoyable evening.

The Denmans team had worked very hard to get everything ready, both inside and out, the gardens were looking lovely and well worth a visit if you haven’t been for a while.

The café now run by Midpines very kindly stayed open late for us and as they are licenced both hot drinks and wine were enjoyed.

A huge thanks to Gwendolyn Van Paasschen for enthusiastically agreeing to host the evening, providing microphones so that every question and answer could be clearly heard and even arranging for the event to be filmed, the recording will be available on the Denmans Garden website very soon.

The event was such a success that we have been invited back to Denmans to run the event again next year so watch this space! Sue Marsh