“What have plants ever done for us?”

We hope that you will agree that this year’s workshop is the go-to event in 2016.

Palmstead’s annual soft landscape workshop this year will focus on the health and well-being benefits of plants and how certain plants can enhance human health while others can really make people sick.

By asking “What have plants done for us?” we hope to stimulate a very timely debate. Plants can make us all better and we need to make informed choices to achieve right plant right place.

Speakers at the 9th Palmstead Workshop held at the Ashford International Hotel in Kent, will include landscape and garden designer Jinny Blom, botanist and curator of the Natural History Museum Dr Mark Spencer, urban greening specialist Anne Jaluzot, RHS research fellow Dr Tiana Blanusa plus medics turned garden designers Jackie Herald and Shenagh Hume from Allergy UK.

Over 150 million people have allergies in Europe. In the UK, 1 in 5 people suffer from 'hay fever' or ' allergic rhinitis' and the prevalence of this and eczema in children have both trebled over the last three decades

We are excited that our Soft Landscape Workshop on Wednesday 21st September will debate and champion smart horticulture and examine how we can make urban life better for all.

Discussion will be underpinned by scientific research and advice will be given on how to make plants work for optimum human-health.

At the top of her profession, Jinny Blom is greatly admired and respected in equal measure by the landscape industry for her integrity and sensitivity to the basic principles of design. Last year she became a board member of the Therapeutic Landscapes Network, an American non-profit organisation that provides information, education and inspiration about the relationship between health, well- being and landscapes. Jinny is also 'Artist in Residence' at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

We have invited one of the country’s best known botanists to speak; Dr Mark Spencer, senior curator at the Natural History Museum and an acknowledged expert in environmental change and its impact upon the UK’s flora to speak at the popular workshop.

Dr Spencer appears regularly on television talking about his work but early on in his career he was a professional nurseryman and gardener. He studied at Kew Gardens where he became particularly interested in the history of gardening. That interest has continued to the present day and Mark has significant knowledge of the 17th and 18th century botanic gardens of Europe and their role in the development of medicine, agriculture, horticulture and empire.

RHS scientist Dr Tijana Blanusa will be looking in depth at pollution mitigation, the properties of plants and managing these for optimum health.

Jackie Herald and Shenagh Hume from Allergy UK will be speaking on the topic of managing the allergenic effects of plants and increasing plant choice criteria at the design stage. Hume is a former medical practitioner specialising in allergies before taking up garden design. Her designs and planting schemes aim to reduce exposure to pollen allergies.

We hope that delegates will leave the workshop enthused and better equipped to deliver this information effectively to clients who increasingly want their garden spaces to enhance their well-being and health.