People to Meet

the chance. We’re in charge of the garden part-time and we still run our nursery, so it’s the best of both worlds.

Je : My teachers pushed me to study physics, but my family were in agriculture, so I completed my rural science GCSE and then worked for di erent farms. My employer was due to retire, and I felt it was time to make a change.

Claire and I knew Trewidden Plants and were invited to take it over. The Eden Project was in its infancy, and we were the main supplier for its bananas and citrus: we found ourselves potting up to 20,000 bananas and 8,000 citruses annually!

Claire: The Minack is an extraordinary place, and we want to make it a destination garden. One of our biggest projects has been planting the South African bed with rare bulbs, gladioli and freesias that we’d grown from seed in 2013 and are now splitting. Some of these plants have been ten years in the making.

RECOMMENDED Claire & Jeff’s favourite gardens

The Australian National Botanic Gardens

Canberra

Je : Fire and rain stopped my first three attempts at visiting, but it was worth the wait. They recently planted an area of banksia, which will look amazing in full flower. anbg.gov.au

Claire Batten & Jeff Rowe

The head gardeners of The Minack Theatre discuss the challenges of caring for a clifftop subtropical garden while running a nursery

Claire: My gardening journey began when I studied Rural Science as a GCSE at school. After my RHS training, I got a job with the local authority working in parks and gardens and on roundabouts.

Je is my brother-in-law, and we decided to join forces and take on Trewidden Plants (Penberth Plants as of 2016 when we relocated), supplying the Eden Project with exotic plants for retail. We’d never worked in commercial horticulture, so it was a giant learning curve. Je was travelling all over the country going to shows, and in 2017 we had a Best in Show at Chelsea in the floral marquee.

Making a living out of selling plants is a rocky business, so when we heard a new head gardener was needed at The Minack Theatre we jumped at

Je : The elements that make the garden so beautiful also make it challenging. Winter is di cult, be it the arrival of a 70mph wind that blasts plants over the cli or the dreaded snow. We never get a dormant season here, so when the weather is brutal it does a lot of damage.

We’ve been conscious of the needs of theatregoers, planting aromatic lavender and rosemary and moving spiky agaves from the edge of the path. In the coming years, we plan to make every bed a show bed with its own identity. penberthplants.co.uk; minack.com

Hunte’s Gardens

Barbados

Claire: I had the pleasure of sitting on the veranda with the owner, Anthony Hunte, who is such a gentleman. We enjoyed a rum punch while viewing his extraordinary garden. The bromeliads, the palms and the beautiful colours make it a must-visit. huntes gardens-barbados.com