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Guy Barter - Head of Horticultural Advice at the RHS.
1) Guy, you have been running the RHS Member's Advisory Service for seven years. Why are you so passionate about gardening and how did you end up working at the RHS?
After four years running our trials field at Wisley, I had a spell as horticultural journalist, before returning to Wisley to run the Member's Advisory Service. Gardening is a most rewarding and exciting hobby. I love helping other people enjoy and explore gardening. It is also a very important industry.
I started out in commercial horticulture and would like to think that I can combine the exacting, science based standards of commercial production with the high standards of gardening craft associated with the RHS. My six fellow advisers have similar backgrounds and together we hope we can give gardeners the best help and advice.
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2) For people who may not be familiar with the organisation, what does the RHS have to offer the average gardener?
We offer gardeners the chance to be part of our charitable work supporting and promoting gardening in Britain. Other benefits include privileged access to our RHS flower shows, our magazine 'The Garden', access to members only areas of our website, free access to our gardens, other gardens who have a reciprocal agreement with us and also free access to our London Flower Shows.
Not surprisingly, I am especially keen to promote the access to personal gardening advice available by post, email or face to face at Wisley.
3) Tell us about the RHS Advisory Service. How many questions do you and your team receive each week and do you manage to answer them all?
Last year, 2003, we answered 68000 enquiries, varying from a few hundred a week in winter to over two thousand each summer week. Naturally we have a finely tuned computer based system to make sure the questions speed to the best possible person to answer them. As well seven general advisors we can call on four botanists, two pest experts and four disease experts and our soil scientist and, soon we will have a plant physiologist too.
Although these specialists are primarily employed to conduct research on matters of interest to gardeners, as much as half their time may be devoted to answering enquiries. We also pick the brains of our garden staff. Many are leading experts in their field.
Of course we have great stores of information and much of this is available on our website as our Plant Selector and Plant Finder as well as problem profiles dealing with commonly asked questions.
4) Your new book, RHS Wisley Experts Gardeners' Advice features answers to some of your most asked questions. Is the book aimed at beginners or does it also offer something for the more experienced gardener?
I think it is useful to both - the way it is set out will allow browsing and also searching for specific problems. Even experienced gardeners might find something new here. I hope they do. I keep discovering new things when advising people, and I hope others will find this as fascinating as I do.
5) 2004 marks the bicentenary year of the RHS. What does this mean for the organisation and why do you think the RHS is such a success?
For two hundred years the RHS has supported and often led the most amazing developments in gardening. Gardening is continuing to change and develop, and the RHS is shaping and responding to these changes. Ways of doing this include development of flower shows, our educational and science programme and development of RHS gardens.
It seems to me that gardeners recognise how we are trying to build on this and more and more are joining the RHS to support our work. There is clearly much more to be done and we will have emulate or even exceed the achievements of the past to accomplish all that the RHS would like to do.
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