@RosyHardyGardening
Rosy Hardy, aka @RosyHardyGardening on YouTube, is an award-winning gardener who has accumulated 24 gold medals from Chelsea Flower Show. A vice president of the Royal Horticultural Society since 2020, she is an expert plantswoman and the owner of a specialist cottage garden plants business in Hampshire.
Recently shortlisted for the Garden Media Guild’s Individual Social Media Influencer of the Year Award 2023, Rosy’s popular YouTube channel features engaging videos and helpful ‘shorts’ that are filled with practical advice to help you get the best from your plants. As sponsors of the GMG award, we caught up with Rosy to learn a bit about her journey on social media and the highlights of her career so far. Here’s what she told us…
Tell us how you got into gardening?
As a small child I loved the outdoors and all the plants in the landscape wherever we lived. I knew all the wild flowers and trees locally. When we moved to Northumberland I had my own small patch of garden.
What’s your greatest gardening achievement?
Rosy won a gold medal at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival
Image: Rosy Hardy
Creating beautiful displays at all the major flower shows in the UK which give so many visitors such pleasure. Even if these displays are transient they are moments to treasure.
How has social media impacted your gardening journey?
Using Instagram and Twitter was my first foray into this world. However talking about plants is my forte so YouTube has made the most impact and is my way forward.
What’s your single, most important piece of gardening advice?
My best advice is to have fun and enjoy your garden. However small or large, it will always help you to be calm.
How has a garden or landscape influenced your work or personal gardening style?
I have always loved Northumberland and its beautiful Freeform. It is wild, beautiful and non-structured, and this is also why I have always loved Cottage Garden style.
If you were stuck on a desert island and could only have three plants – one practical, one beautiful, and one unusual, what would they be?
These sharply acidic sour cherries are perfect for making pies, jams and cherry brandy
Image: Cherry ‘Morello’ (Prunus cerasus) from Thompson & Morgan
That’s a difficult question to ask a plantswoman who is always collecting new interesting plants or re-finding older climate resilient species! So let’s see, I would take Prunus cerasus, Oenothera Rosyjane, and Zizia aurea.
What’s next?
For next year, YouTube Collaborations are big on the agenda with plans to grow the site. I’m also hoping to get more radio or presenting work.
More about the Garden Media Guild Awards
Every year, the Garden Media Guild celebrates gardening professionals with a national awards ceremony. They highlight inspirational content creators including authors, journalists, photographers, vloggers, podcasters and social media influencers who share their gardening knowledge with the nation. The finalists are judged by their peers and experts in the field.
This year, Thompson & Morgan has sponsored the award for ‘Individual Social Media Influencer of the Year’. This special award is for “the communicator who inspires, educates or informs followers about gardening by posting regularly on one or more platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok or others), generating an engaged following, replying to questions and comments and interacting with followers.” For the full list of GMG awards, visit their website.
Since the first seed catalogue was published in 1855, Thompson & Morgan has grown to become one of the UK’s largest Mail Order Seed and Plant companies. Through the publication of our catalogues and the operation of our award-winning website, Thompson & Morgan is able to provide home gardeners with the very best quality products money can buy.
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