The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity.
Horticulture is the art of cultivating plants in gardens to produce food and medicinal ingredients, or for comfort and ornamental purposes. Horticulturists are agriculturists who grow flowers, fruits and nuts, vegetables and herbs, as well as ornamental trees and lawns.
Crotalaria is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae commonly known as rattlepods. The genus includes over 700 species of herbaceous plants and shrubs. Africa is the continent with the majority of Crotalaria species, which are mainly found in damp grassland, especially in floodplains, depressions and along edges of swamps and rivers, but also in deciduous bush land, roadsides and fields. Some species of Crotalaria are grown as ornamentals. The common name rattlepod or rattlebox is derived from the fact that the seeds become loose in the pod as they mature, and rattle when the pod is shaken. The name derives from the Ancient Greek κρόταλον, meaning "castanet", and is the same root as the name for the rattlesnakes (Crotalus).
Spartium junceum, known as Spanish broom, rush broom, or weaver's broom, it is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and the sole species in the genus Spartium. It is closely related to the other brooms.
Ulex europaeus, the gorse, common gorse, furze or whin, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to the British Isles and Western Europe.
Grevillea robusta, commonly known as the southern silky oak, silk oak or silky oak, silver oak or Australian silver oak, is a flowering plant in the family Proteaceae. It is a tree, the largest species in its genus but is not closely related to the true oaks, Quercus. It is a native of eastern coastal Australia, growing in riverine, subtropical and dry rainforest environments.
(Ernest) Charles Nelson is a botanist who specialises in the heather family, Ericaceae, especially Erica, and whose past research interests included the Proteaceae especially Adenanthos. He is the author or editor of over 24 books and more than 150 research papers. He was honorary editor of Archives of Natural History between 1999 and 2012 and remains closely linked with the journal as one of the Associate Editors, and was honorary editor of Heathers for 23 years until 2017.
Tropaeolum majus, the garden nasturtium, nasturtium, Indian cress or monks cress, is a species of flowering plant in the family Tropaeolaceae, originating in the Andes from Bolivia north to Colombia. An easily-grown annual or short-lived perennial with disc-shaped leaves and brilliant orange or red flowers, it is of cultivated, probably hybrid origin. It is not closely related to the genus Nasturtium.
Acacia retinodes is an evergreen shrub that is native to South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. Short racemes of yellow flowers are produced periodically throughout the year. Some common names are Retinodes water wattle, swamp wattle, wirilda, ever-blooming wattle and silver wattle.
Senna artemisioides, the wormwood senna, is a species of flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae. It is endemic to Australia, where it is found in all mainland states and territories. Other common names include silver senna, silver cassia or feathery cassia - although "cassia" generally refers to the largest-growing Cassiinae. Some of its distinct subspecies also have common names of their own.
Genista tinctoria, the dyer's greenweed or dyer's broom, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. Its other common names include dyer's whin, waxen woad and waxen wood. The Latin specific epithet tinctoria means "used as a dye".
Hardenbergia violacea is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is known in Australia by the common names false sarsaparilla, purple coral pea and waraburra. Elsewhere it is also called purple twining-pea, vine-lilac and wild sarsaparilla. It is a prostrate or climbing subshrub with egg-shaped to narrow lance-shaped leaves and racemes of mostly purple flowers.
Melianthus major, the giant honey flower or kruidjie-roer-my-nie, is a species of flowering plant in the family Francoaceae. It is an evergreen suckering shrub, endemic to South Africa and naturalised in India, Australia and New Zealand. It grows to 2–3 m (7–10 ft) tall by 1–3 m (3–10 ft) wide, with pinnate blue-green leaves 30–50 cm (12–20 in) long, which have a distinctive musky odour. Dark red, nectar-laden flower spikes, 30–80 cm (12–31 in) in length, appear in spring, followed by green pods. All parts of the plants are poisonous.
Acacia pravissima, commonly known as Ovens wattle, Oven wattle, wedge-leaved wattle and Tumut wattle, is a species of flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is an evergreen shrub native to Victoria, the South West Slopes and Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia.
Crotalaria cunninghamii, also known as green birdflower, birdflower ratulpo, parrot pea or regal birdflower, is a plant of the legume family Fabaceae, named Crotalaria after the Greek word for rattle, because their seeds rattle, and cunninghamii after early 19th century botanist Allan Cunningham. Crotalaria cunninghamii is a short-lived perennial plant native to Australia and its habitat is the deserts, coastlands, drainage lines and sand dunes of the northern half of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. This habitat is semi-arid to temperate regions in well drained soils. Crotalaria cunninghamii blooms from January to April. It is pollinated by large bees and by honeyeaters. Crotalaria cunninghamii is known as the Mangarr plant to the Nyangumarta Warrarn indigenous group.
Crotalaria novae-hollandiae, known commonly as the New Holland rattlepod, is a species of flowering plant that is native to Australia.
Thunbergia grandiflora is an evergreen vine in the family Acanthaceae. It is native to China, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indochina and Myanmar and widely naturalised elsewhere. Common names include Bengal clockvine, Bengal trumpet, blue skyflower, blue thunbergia, blue trumpetvine, clockvine, skyflower and skyvine.
Grevillea stenobotrya is a shrub or small tree in the family Proteaceae that is endemic to arid regions of Australia. Common names include rattle-pod grevillea, sandhill grevillea, sandhill oak and sandhill spider flower.
Cytisus nigricans, the black broom, is a species of flowering plant in the subfamily Faboideae of the family Fabaceae. Growing 3–5 ft (0.91–1.52 m) tall, it is a slender deciduous shrub with erect branches. Masses of brilliant yellow, slightly fragrant pea-like flowers appear in long racemes on the current year's growth in summer and early autumn.
Roderick Leon Bieleski was a New Zealand plant physiologist. As a botanist and horticulturist, his research focussed on understanding the factors that affected the behaviour of plants, in particular horticultural crops. His work had practical relevance to farmers and orchardists in building their understanding of these factors and taking account of them while making a living from growing and harvesting plants. He received many honours and awards, culminating in being appointed Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in 2010.
