BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks Podcast.

Every week I ask my guests to choose the 8 tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them

if they were cast away to a desert island.

And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.

I hope you enjoy listening.

Music Radio Music

This week my cast away is Sue Bakes, Director General of the Royal Horticultural Society.

Her organisation is best known for its spectacular flower shows and garden festivals,

including annual extravaganzas at Chelsea, Hampton Court, Chatsworth House and Tatton Park.

In fact, the RHS is the UK's largest and most venerable gardening charity,

founded in 1809 for the promotion of horticulture and the exchange of ideas.

200 years on, their core mission remains the same, though its aims have expanded to include

engaging future generations using gardening to transform communities and promoting careers in the industry.

Sue Bakes has been its director general for almost 10 years.

Under her green-fingered leadership, the RHS has grown impressively from 350,000 to 510,000 members.

A keen gardener ever since she received a packet of seeds in a trowel for her 7th birthday,

she spent 25 years working in the travel industry before deciding to change lanes

and apply for her current role.

She says horticulture is a great leveler.

We meet royalty, celebrities and millionaires and they'll all listen to the most

junior person if they know how to sort out their gardening problem.

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